jliiiillliil 


i 


Captain  G.B.Mc  Keat 


SCOUTING  THRILLS 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK    •    BOSTON  •    CHICAGO  •    DALLAS 
ATLANTA   •    SAN   FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LIMITED 

LONDON  •   BOMBAY  •   CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  LTD. 

TORONTO 


SCOUTING  THRILLS 


BY 

CAPTAIN  G.  B.  McKEAN,  V.C.,  M.C.,  M.M, 

14TH  BATTALION  CANADIAN  INFANTRY 
WITH  FOREWORD  BY 

LIEUT.-GEN.  SIB   E.  E.  W.  TUENEB 

V.C.,  K.C.B.,   K.C.M.Q.,  D.S.O. 


gork 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1919 

All  rights  reserved 


COPYBIGHT,   1919, 

BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  May,  1919. 


Norfcoooti 

J.  S.  Cushing  Co.  —Berwick  <fc  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


FOKEWOKD 

BY  LIEUT.-GEN.  SIR  R.  E.  W.  TURNER,  V.C., 
K.C.B.,  K.C.M.G.,  D.S.O.  CHIEF  OP  GEN- 
ERAL STAFF,  CANADIAN  FORCES 

rpHE  initiative,  and  individual  bravery 
•*•  of  the  Battalion  Scouts  have  been 
outstanding  in  the  Canadian  Army  since  the 
beginning  of  the  Campaign. 

It  can  be  truthfully  said,  the  Canadians  on 
their  front  owned  "  No  Man's  Land." 

This  ascendancy  over  the  Boche  was 
gained  not  by  reckless  bravery,  but  by  the 
superior  intellect  and  resourcefulness  of  our 
men,  developed  by  studied  training. 

The  lessons  gained  on  their  dangerous 
patrols  in  the  face  of  an  enemy,  by  our  gal- 
lant scouts  will  be  invaluable  in  helping  the 
Scout  movement  so  happily  revived  in  Can- 
ada by  H.  R.  H.  the  Duke  of  Connaught 
during  his  term  as  Governor  General. 


456481 


vi  FOREWORD 

This  book,  written  by  a  Scout  officer  who 
has  gained  the  most  coveted  decoration  of 
the  British  Army  in  the  execution  of  his 
duty,  depicts  in  simple  language  the  neces- 
sity for  Scouts  to  at  all  times  live  up  to  their 
motto  "  Be  prepared." 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

FOREWORD  BY  LIEUT.-GEN.  SIR  R.  E.  W.  TURNER, 

V.C.,  K.C.B.,  K.C.M.G.,  D.S.O.    .        .        .        .  v 

INTRODUCTORY      ...        .        .        »       .        .  1 

I.    AN  AMBUSCADE 11 

II.    A  FIND     .       .......  28 

III.  EXPLODING  A  MINE 45 

IV.  RAID  RECONNAISSANCES 61 

V.    PULLING  THE  STRING        ,       ....  78 

VI.    HUN  RAIDS 95 

VII.    THE  MYSTERIOUS  TUNNEL       ....  120 

VIII.    LOST  IN  No  MAN'S  LAND        .        .        .  •      .  140 

IX.    WINNING  A  V.C.       .        .        ..      .       .        .  155 

X.    THE  WARNING  WHISTLE  .        .   '•   *   ;    .        .181 

XI.    A  BAYONET  CHARGE         ,'       ,       *        .        .  197 

XII.    CAPTURING  A  VILLAGE  216 


vii 


INTRODUCTORY 

purpose  of  this  book  is  to  set  forth, 
in  as  attractive  a  form  as  possible,  the 
interesting  and  important  work  performed 
by  scouts  in  the  Great  War,  now  happily 
brought  to  a  successful  and  triumphant 
conclusion.  It  is  necessarily  limited  to 
personal  experiences,  but,  as  similar  ex- 
periences were  common  to  the  work  of  all 
scouts,  it  is  really  more  than  a  personal 
narrative.  It  is  not  written  to  instruct  in 
methods  of  scouting,  for  doubtless,  to  the 
highly  trained,  expert  scout,  many  of  the 
things  we  did  in  carrying  out  our  duties 
would  appear  to  be  clumsy  and  inex- 
perienced— methods  to  be  avoided,  not 
copied.  The  stories  are  written  to  enter- 
tain and  possibly  to  thrill,  but  certainly 
not  to  instruct.  To  the  boy  who  loves 
stories  of  adventure  (and  what  boy  is  there 
who  does  not?)  this  book  will,  I  trust, 
make  an  appeal.  The  stories  are  plain, 
unvarnished,  truthful  records  of  incidents 


2  SCOUTING-  THRILLS 

that  actually  happened.  There  are  no 
fictitious  characters  introduced;  I  have 
not  even  attempted  to  camouflage  names. 
In  doing  this,  I  sincerely  hope  that  I  have 
not  given  offence  to  any  one,  that  those 
who  unexpectedly  find  themselves  figuring 
in  these  stories  will  pardon  me  for  having, 
without  their  consent,  introduced  them  into 
print. 

For  more  than  four  years  we  have  been 
entertained,  thrilled,  and  instructed  by 
highly  coloured  accounts,  written  by  war 
correspondents,  of  the  important  decisive 
actions  of  the  war.  They  were  continu- 
ously on  the  fringe  of  the  battle  and  ex- 
cellently placed  for  giving  a  broad,  general 
description  of  events  as  they  were  happen- 
ing. It  is  the  privilege  of  humble  partici- 
pants, such  as  myself,  to  give  the  more 
intimate  account  of  these  same  historic 
events.  I  have  attempted  to  do  this  from 
the  scouts'  standpoint,  for  I  think  it  can 
safely  be  claimed  that  of  all  the  partici- 
pants in  the  war,  there  were  none  who  en- 
joyed more  unique  opportunities  for  viewing 
it  from,  as  it  were,  '  a  front  seat,'  than  did 
the  scout.  We  were  forever  scraping  up  a 
lively  acquaintance  with  the  Hun.  We 


INTRODUCTORY  3 

found,  as  I  hope  these  stories  prove,  that 
he  was  woefully  lacking  in  the  spirit  of 
adventure.  Our  mastery  over  No  Man's 
Land  was  very  seldom  challenged,  and  on 
behalf  of  all  scouts,  I  do  not  hesitate  to 
claim  our  overwhelming  superiority  over 
the  Hun  in  this  interesting  and  adventurous 
work. 

It  was  pure  love  of  adventure  that 
attracted  me  to  scouting,  a  love  which,  if 
not  exactly  born  in  me,  was  at  least  de- 
veloped in  me,  through  my  association  with 
the  Boy  Scout  movement;  and  it  was  the 
principles  of  this  organisation  which,  more 
than  anything  else,  underlay  all  our  train- 
ing. I  remember  very  vividly,  when  I  was 
acting  as  an  instructor  at  a  school  for 
training  scouts  that,  at  the  beginning  of 
each  class,  we  were  addressed  by  a  colonel 
under  whose  supervision  we  worked.  His 
first  question  to  the  class  was : — 

6  Now,  boys,  what  is  it  most  important 
that  a  scout  should  have?  '  The  replies 
were  many  and  varied,  but  seldom  correct. 
6  Good  eyesight  ' ;  '  good  hearing  ' ;  '  good 
physique  ' ;  '  be  a  good  shot ' ;  *  a  knowl- 
edge of  map  reading  ' ;  were  some  of  the 
many  replies. 


4  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

6  No,  you  are  all  wrong,'  the  colonel 
would  reply;  '  a  scout's  honour  is  the  most 
important  thing  of  all.  If  a  scout  isn't  to 
be  trusted  then  he's  no  good  to  me,  and 
he  will  be  no  good  to  his  commanding 
officer.' 

It  was  to  develop  this  sense  of  honour 
that  was  the  chief  end  and  aim  of  our 
training.  For  no  matter  how  clever  and 
expert  a  scout  might  be,  if  he  could  not 
be  trusted  to  carry  out  his  commission,  then 
he  was  no  good  as  a  scout.  The  scouts 
worked  alone,  it  was  seldom  any  check 
could  be  kept  on  their  work;  they  either 
said  they  had  carried  out  an  order  and  had; 
or  else  they  said  they  had  carried  out  an 
order  and  hadn't.  The  importance  of  having 
scouts  who,  no  matter  what  difficulties  or 
dangers  were  involved,  would  carry  out 
orders  and  return  with  the  information 
required,  can  easily  be  understood. 

The  work  of  the  scout  in  France  was  full 
of  interest,  excitement  and  danger.  Each 
patrol  was  an  adventure.  That  narrow 
strip  of  land  separating  armies  and  known 
as  No  Man's  Land  was  our  hunting  ground. 
It  was  a  strangely  lonely  place,  friendless 
and  menacing,  a  land  of  darkness  and 


INTEODUCTOEY  5 

mystery,  but  possessing  a  fascination  all 
its  own.  The  object  of  our  patrols  was 
to  obtain  information  about  the  enemy — 
to  locate  definitely  his  outposts,  to  report 
upon  his  defences,  such  as  the  condition  of 
his  wire,  et  cetera. 

Our  work  was  chiefly  done  under  the 
cover  of  darkness — the  time  when  we  could 
best  approach  his  defences  without  being 
observed.  Occasionally,  during  the  last 
few  months  of  the  war,  when  attacks  were 
an  almost  daily  occurrence  and  the  situa- 
tion was  frequently  obscure,  daylight  patrols 
were  sent  out.  But  a  daylight  patrol,  un- 
less the  conditions  were  favourable  to  it 
(such  as,  for  example,  working  along  an 
old  trench),  was  never  very  satisfactory. 
The  difficulties  of  approaching  closely  to 
the  enemy  positions  were  usually  too  great 
to  be  successfully  overcome. 

Associated  with  the  scouts  were  observers 
and  snipers,  the  three  sections  being  grouped 
together  and  known  generally  as  the  In- 
telligence section.  This  was  a  separate 
unit  in  a  battalion,  and  was  under  the 
command  of  an  Intelligence  Officer  who, 
in  most  battalions,  had  associated  with  him 
in  his  work  a  Scout  Officer.  All  members 


6  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

of  this  unit  were  known  as  specialists, 
and  did  special  training  during  the  period 
when  the  battalion  was  resting.  They 
were  billeted  together,  messed  together, 
and  generally  were  a  very  happy,  sociable 
family  of  about  thirty  men.  During  the 
training  periods  the  scouts  were  instructed 
in  map-reading;  the  use  of  the  prismatic 
compass;  marching  on  compass  bearings 
by  day  and  by  night;  sketching  and 
making  reports ;  signalling  (semaphore  and 
Morse);  methods  of  crawling;  practice  in 
bomb-throwing,  and  revolver  practice.  The 
two  latter  were  probably  the  most  popular 
branches  of  training.  We  were  usually 
most  happy  when  we  could  get  in  amongst 
some  old  trenches  and  practise  bombing 
raids,  using  live  bombs.  Bight  or  ten  of 
us  would  throw  bombs  together  and  make  a 
most  terrific  noise.  We  once  got  hold 
of  a  box  of  salvaged  German  bombs,  which 
had  a  much  louder  detonation  than  ours, 
but  were  not  nearly  so  dangerous.  We 
thought  it  a  good  idea  to  get  used  to 
German  bombs  exploding  within  a  few 
yards  of  us,  so  gaily  scattered  salvos  of 
them  around,  to  the  great  alarm  of  the 
inhabitants  of  an  adjoining  village  who, 


INTEODUCTOEY  7 

hearing  these  loud  explosions  and  finding 
that  the  windows  of  their  houses  rattled 
and  shook,  rushed  out  of  their  houses  in 
dismay,  thinking  that  the  hated  Boche  was 
bombing  them!  By  an  unhappy  coin- 
cidence, on  our  very  first  night  in  the  line 
following  this,  we  made  an  altogether  too 
intimate  acquaintance  with  German  bombs 
and  one  of  the  most  popular  members  of 
our  section  was  killed.1  These  practices  did 
not  lack  the  element  of  danger;  on  two 
occasions  we  had  scouts  wounded.  In 
addition  to  the  work  of  patrolling,  there 
was  the  work  of  guiding  reliefs  in  and  out 
of  the  line.  This  demanded  an  intimate 
acquaintance  with  all  the  routes  in  the 
back  and  forward  areas,  which  could  only 
be  obtained  by  diligent  and  painstaking 
reconnaissance  work. 

The  above  gives  a  fairly  detailed  account 
of  the  different  duties  of  the  scout  in  France. 
It  will  perhaps  serve  to  give  an  added  in- 
terest to  the  stories  that  follow. 

I  joined  the  Intelligence  section  first  as 
a  sniper  but,  a  few  days  later,  I  was  made 
an  observer,  and  a  few  weeks  later  still, 

1  The  incident  is  described  in  the  story  Lost  in  No  Man's 
Land. 


8  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

became  a  scout.  I  afterwards  became  scout 
corporal,  and  finally  scout  officer. 

The  sequence  of  the  stories  is  exactly  as 
they  happened.  Between  the  first  and 
second  there  is  a  gap  of  some  months.  The 
scene  of  the  first  is  in  the  Ypres  salient,  and 
that  of  the  second  is  Vimy  Ridge.  During 
the  interval  between,  we  took  part  in  what 
was,  as  far  as  my  experience  goes,  the 
bloodiest  fighting  of  the  whole  war.  I  refer 
to  the  Battle  of  the  Somme  in  1916.  The 
memories  of  it  are  too  gruesome  for  me  ever 
to  include  any  incident  of  my  experiences 
in  a  book  of,  I  trust,  fairly  cheerful  war 
stories.  It  was  a  period  which,  to  me,  was 
entirely  lacking  in  the  glamour  and  romance 
which  we  all  associate  with  the  war.  The 
last  two  stories  are  not  scouting  stories,  but 
I  trust  the  interest  in  them  will  not  be 
lessened  on  that  account.  Apart  from  con- 
veying some  idea  of  the  conditions  prevail- 
ing in  the  final  stages  of  the  war,  and  the 
new  and  changed  conditions  under  which 
scouts  were  working,  they  describe  two  that 
were  (to  me  at  any  rate)  rather  thrilling 
incidents,  and  so  should  be  of  interest  to  all 
readers. 

Although  the  book  is  written  primarily 


INTRODUCTORY  9 

for  boys,  I  trust  that  the  stories  will  prove 
of  sufficient  interest  to  entertain  '  grown- 
ups '  also. 

Some  of  the  characters  in  this  book  have 
paid  the  supreme  sacrifice.  Truer  com- 
rades, or  braver  soldiers,  it  would  be  difficult 
to  find.  I  count  it  a  privilege  to  give  public 
expression  to  my  unbounded  and  warmly 
affectionate  admiration  of  their  sterling 
worth  as  soldiers  and  men — the  type  that 
has  brought  immortal  fame  and  glory  to 
Canada's  citizen  army.  To  have  fought 
with  them  side  by  side  will  be  for  ever  a 
proud  memory.  The  example  of  patriotism 
and  sacrifice  which  they  have  set — these 
scouts  of  the  Great  War — should  be  copied 
and  practised  by  every  boy  who  belongs  to 
the  great  Boy  Scout  organisation. 


AN  AMBUSCADE 

is  not  going  to  be  a  story  about  my- 
self,  though  I  might  come  into  it 
occasionally.  It  is  about  the  boys  who 
taught  me  scouting,  particularly  about  one 
boy  known  familiarly  as  Tommy.  He 
was  scout  sergeant  when  I  first  made  his 
acquaintance,  and  afterwards  became  scout 
officer  at  the  time  when  I  was  a  corporal  in 
the  scout  section. 

My  acquaintance  began  from  the  moment 
when  I  joined  the  battalion  in  the  spring 
of  1916.  My  imagination  had  been  well 
fed  at  the  Base  upon  stories  of  hair-raising 
escapes  and  ghastly  mutilation,  so  it  was 
with  very  mixed  feelings  that  I  looked 
forward  to  my  participation  in  the  Great 
War.  My  interest  in  scouting  led  me  to 
seek  out  the  boys  engaged  in  this  adven- 
turous work,  and  it  was  then  that  I  met 
Tommy, 

11 


12  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

The  battalion  was  out  for  a  few  days' 
rest  in  a  camp  of  tents  in  a  grove  of  trees 
in  Flanders.  As  I  approached  the  tent, 
sounds  of  revelry  came  from  it,  music  and 
voices  singing.  I  pulled  the  flap  over  the 
opening  to  one  side  and  entered.  Tommy 
was  seated  on  a  little  box  pulling  away  at 
an  old  melodeon.  He  was  playing  the 
music  of  many  popular  songs,  the  rest  of 
the  boys  in  the  tent  were  all  singing  lustily. 
It  was  a  happy,  hilarious  gathering.  There 
was  many  a  night  afterwards  when  I  made 
one  of  similar  merry  gatherings,  times 
too  when  there  were,  through  casualties, 
occasional  blanks  in  our  choruses.  Hard- 
ships and  dangers  and  longings  were  quickly 
and  completely  forgotten  under  the  spell 
of  the  music  from  Tommy's  old  melodeon. 

During  the  two  or  three  days  the  battalion 
was  resting  after  I  joined  it,  I  cultivated  the 
companionship  of  the  scouts  and  was  always 
eager  to  hear  the  stories  of  their  adventures. 
When  we  went  up  the  line  I  went  up  '  in 
the  company,'  which  means  that  I  was  just 
one  of  the  common  or  garden  type  of 
Tommy,  doing  sentry  duty  and  working- 
parties  and  cultivating  an  eye  for  a '  Minnie. n 

l'  Minnie,'  a  German  minenwerfer  shell,  corresponding  to 
our  trench  mortar  shell. 


AN  AMBUSCADE  13 

I  shall  not  forget  the  first  night  when  I 
looked  out  over  the  parapet  into  that  land 
of  mystery  and  wonder — No  Man's  Land. 
Somewhere  out  there  was  the  enemy! 
Occasionally  I  saw  the  flash  of  a  rifle  as 
a  German  sentry  fired,  and  heard  the  sing 
of  the  bullet.  Merely  to  look  out  over 
there  seemed  to  me  an  act  of  courage!  I 
tingled  with  the  excitement  of  my  new  ex- 
perience. At  last  I  was  in  the  war,  not 
merely  dressed  up  as  a  soldier,  but  actually 
facing  the  enemy — not  more  than  a  hundred 
yards  away !  And  it  was  that  little  strip  of 
land  bestrewn  with  wire  and  obstacles, 
that  unknown  disputed  piece  of  ground 
called  '  No  Man's  Land  ' — that  most  readily 
and  quickly  appealed  to  my  imagination. 
I  looked  out  into  it  and  pondered  over 
its  mystery.  As  if  in  answer  to  my  unspoken 
question  an  N.C.O.  hopped  on  to  the  firing 
step  alongside  of  me  and  asked : 

'  Did  you  hear  anybody  in  the  wire  ?  ' 

As  a  matter  of  fact  I  had  been  doing 
nothing  else  but  hearing  and  seeing  things ! 
Like  every  land  of  mystery  it  seemed  to  be 
peopled  with  shadowy  forms. 

'  Yes,'  I  whispered  back  earnestly,  *  I 
think  I  saw  somebody  too.' 

4  Where?  'he  asked. 


14  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

4  There,'  I  replied,  indicating  the  direc- 
tion. 

After  a  few  moments  the  N.C.O.  turned  to 
me. 

'  Did  you  ever  see  a  fence  post  ?  '  he 
asked. 

' Scores  of  them,'  I  replied. 

6  Well,  you  must  have  forgotten  what 
they  look  like,  for  that's  what  your  man  is 
out  there — a  fence  post.' 

It  was  rather  discouraging  and  humili- 
ating, but  it  taught  me  a  lesson — that  a  little 
imagination  on  a  dark  night  is  a  very 
dangerous  thing. 

6  Keep  a  good  look  out,'  said  the  N.C.O. 
as  he  left  me ;  '  A  fellow  a  little  further 
along  the  trench  swears  he  heard  some  one 
in  the  wire.' 

A  few  minutes  later  I  felt  a  tug  on  my 
arm — it  was  the  N.C.O.  back  again. 

'  A  patrol  is  going  out  on  the  left — 
five  scouts ;  they  '11  be  out  for  about  two 
hours.  If  you  see  or  hear  anybody  out 
there,  be  sure  to  challenge  before  you 
shoot.' 

Five  scouts  going  out  into  No  Man's 
Land!  My  imagination  immediately  got 
busy — five  scouts  roaming  around  out  there 


AN  AMBUSCADE  15 

in  that  land  of  mystery  and  darkness! 
My  imaginings  were  interrupted  by  the 
relief  coming  along  to  take  my  place,  but 
my  curiosity  was  not  lessened,  and  I  was 
glad  and  relieved  when  I  heard  the  word 
being  passed  along  that  '  the  patrol  was  in.' 
A  few  minutes  later  they  passed  along  the 
trench.  The  next  morning  when  off  duty 
I  went  down  to  headquarters  and  sought 
out  the  scouts.  Tommy,  at  my  request, 
gave  me  an  account  of  the  patrol  of  the 
previous  night.  I  was  full  of  curiosity. 
One  scout  had  been  fired  at,  the  bullet 
passing  through  his  cap.  When  he  had 
finished,  I  asked: 

'  Do  you  think  I  could  get  into  your 
section?  ' 

'  Yes,  sure ;  next  time  you  are  out  of  the 
line,  ask  to  be  transferred. ' 

I  did  so  and  was  transferred.  As  I  had 
some  knowledge  of  map  reading  I  went 
into  the  line  as  an  observer  and  not  as  a 
scout.  My  duty  as  an  observer  was  to  sit 
in  a  specially  constructed  Observation  Post 
from  which  a  good  view  of  a  particular 
section  of  the  German  trench  was  available. 
The  O.P.  (as  it  was  popularly  called)  was 
equipped  with  a  telescope  and  a  map.  I 


16  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

shan't  ever  forget  the  excitement  and  shock 
of  seeing  my  first  German.  The  telescope 
was  a  good  one  and  the  German  trench  a  bare 
hundred  yards  away.  It  was  a  sunny 
morning  and  I  was  sitting  with  my  eye 
glued  to  the  telescope  when  the  top  of  a 
German  service  cap  (the  soft  peakless  kind) 
came  into  my  field  of  view.  Very  slowly 
it  moved  upwards,  then  I  saw  a  pair  of 
eyebrows,  then  the  eyes  underneath  these, 
and  finally  the  fat,  full  face  of  a  German! 
He  was  stealing  a  look  across  No  Man's 
Land!  But  this  was  nothing  to  the  ex- 
citement of  the  following  morning  when, 
about  two  thousand  yards  behind  the 
German  front  line,  there  appeared  a  party 
of  about  fifty  Germans — carrying  picks  and 
shovels.  I  watched  them  until  they  halted, 
then  spread  out  and  commenced  digging. 
Rapidly  I  figured  out  just  about  where  they 
would  be  on  the  map,  and  making  a  note 
of  the  location,  rushed  back  to  headquarters 
and  reported  it.  I  was  told  the  artillery 
would  fire  a  few  rounds  into  them  so  rushed 
back  to  the  O.P.  to  see  what  would  happen. 
In  a  few  minutes  I  heard  the  scream  of 
shells  passing  overhead.  I  saw  a  few  white 
puffs  not  many  feet  above  the  heads  of 


AN  AMBUSCADE  17 

the  working-party:  it  was  shrapnel.  Im- 
mediately there  was  the  wildest  confusion 
— picks  and  shovels  were  thrown  down  and 
men  ran  wildly  in  all  directions!  I  was 
fairly  dancing  with  excitement  and  satis- 
faction! After  some  minutes  they  returned 
in  one's  and  two's;  those  who  had  been  hit 
were  carried  away;  picks  and  shovels  were 
collected  and  the  party  straggled  back,  leav- 
ing the  work  unfinished.  But,  interesting  as 
all  this  was,  my  chief  longing  was  to  go  out 
on  patrol,  and,  that  night,  I  went  to  where 
the  scouts  were  staying. 

6  Hullo, '  said  Tommy,  '  how  do  you  like 
observing?  ' 

'  Fine,'  I  replied,  and  proceeded  to  give 
him  an  account  of  the  discomfiture  of  the 
Huns.  When  I  had  finished  I  remarked : 

'  I  suppose  you  are  going  out  to-night?  ' 

'  Yes ;  two  or  three  of  us.' 

'  What  are  the  chances  of  going  out  with 
you?  ' 

'  Why,  d'you  want  to  come?  ' 

'  Yes,  I'm  very  keen.' 

'  All  right,  come  along  about  nine  o'clock, 
we  '11  get  a  revolver  for  you. ' 

'  Thanks  very  much,'  I  said, '  I'll  be  along 
at  nine.' 


18  SCOUTING  THEILLS 

I  was  there  before  nine. 

6  Before  you  go  out, '  Tommy  remarked  to 
me,  '  you  must  take  all  your  badges  off  and 
leave  all  letters  and  papers  behind.' 

<  Why  is  that?  '  I  asked. 

6  Well,  in  case  you  were  taken  prisoner  or 
were  killed  and  had  to  be  left  out  there. 
If  they  found  letters  and  papers  on  you 
they  would  secure  identification.  Also  the 
badges  show  up  bright  when  a  flare  light  is 
shot  up,  and  would  perhaps  give  away  our 
position  at  the  time.' 

So  I  very  seriously  and  soberly  began  to 
remove  all  badges  and  letters.  These  pre- 
cautions impressed  me  with  the  seriousness 
of  this  game  of  scouting.  A  few  minutes 
afterwards  the  Scout  Officer  came  in  and 
we  went  up  to  the  front  line.  It  was  a  very 
dark  night,  but  quite  mild  and  dry.  We 
moved  up  and  down  the  trench  warning 
the  sentries.  At  last  we  came  to  the  place 
where  it  had  been  decided  we  should  go  out. 
The  officer  was  not  going — Tommy,  another 
scout,  and  myself  were  to  make  up  the 
patrol.  The  place  where  it  had  been  decided 
we  should  go  out  at  was  one  of  our  Listening 
Posts.  Now,  of  all  the  unpopular  duties 
that  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  suffering  Tommy, 


AN  AMBUSCADE  19 

that  of  Listening  Post  was  perhaps  the 
most  detestable.  It  was  usually  made  up 
of  two  men  who,  as  an  extra  defensive 
precaution,  were  sent  out  in  front  of  the 
front  line  trench.  The  distance  out  from 
our  trench  varied,  sometimes  not  more  than 
twenty  yards,  sometimes  fifty  to  seventy-five 
yards.  The  men  usually  established  them- 
selves in  some  commodious  shell-hole  and 
were  in  communication  with  the  front 
line  trench  by  means  of  a  wire.  One  pull 
on  the  wire  signified  O.K.,  two  pulls  (from 
the  trench)  was  a  signal  to  the  men  in  the 
Listening  Post  that  some  one  (probably 
the  relief)  was  coming  out  from  the  trench, 
three  pulls  (from  the  Listening  Post)  was 
a  call  for  the  N.C.O.,  four  pulls  (from  the 
Listening  Post)  was  an  alarm,  five  pulls 
(from  the  trench)  was  the  signal  to  the  men 
in  the  Listening  Post  to  return  to  the 
trench.  It  was  a  dirty,  dangerous  job,  and 
thoroughly  disliked.  The  miseries  of  it  on 
a  cold  wet  night  can  easily  be  imagined,  often 
lying  in  a  shell-hole  half  filled  with  water. 
Sometimes  a  little  wire  was  strung  out  in 
front  as  protection  against  attack,  but 
more  often  the  post  was  unprotected. 
Occasionally  there  was  a  tragedy  out  there : 


20  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

a  rifle  fired  or  a  bomb  thrown,  and  frantic 
signals  out  to  the  Listening  Post  unanswered. 
A  party  goes  out  to  find  maybe  one  man 
lying  dead  and  one  missing,  or  perhaps  both 
missing.  The  Listening  Post  we  passed 
was  perhaps  twenty  to  thirty  yards  out 
from  our  trench,  just  inside  of  our  wire. 
After  a  few  whispered  words  to  the  two 
men  in  it,  we  crawled  through  our  wire  and 
out  into  the  land  of  my  imaginative  wonder- 
ings — No  Man's  Land!  Tommy  led  the 
way  while  I  brought  up  the  rear.  Just  as 
I  was  in  the  act  of  raising  myself  over  a 
twisted  wire  stake,  a  flare  light  was  shot 
up  from  the  German  trench. 

*  Stay  where  you  are, '  came  back  the  sharp 
whispered  command  from  Tommy. 

As  the  light  broke  and  fell  I  felt  myself 
to  be  assuming  gigantic  proportions;  I  felt 
as  if  the  eyes  of  the  whole  German  army 
were  being  riveted  upon  me  and  a  thou- 
sand rifles  were  levelled  at  me !  It  was  my 
first  experience  of  being  in  the  lime-light  of 
No  Man's  Land.  The  light  flickered  and 
slowly  died  out,  and  the  darkness  seemed 
more  intense  than  ever.  With  a  sigh  of 
relief  and  thankfulness,  I  completed  my 
progress  over  the  obstacle  and  followed  on 


AN  AMBUSCADE  21 

the  heels  of  the  scout  in  front  of  me.  After 
crawling  along  for  some  time  the  heels 
suddenly  disappeared.  With  palpitating 
heart  I  continued  to  crawl  and  came  to  the 
edge  of  a  huge  shell-hole.  I  looked  down 
into  it  but  failed  to  distinguish  anything, 
then  I  heard  somebody  whisper : 

'  Come  on  down  into  this  shell-hole.' 

I  did  so,  and  found  Tommy  and  the  other 
scout  contentedly  sitting  in  the  bottom  of  it. 
We  did  not  stop  to  examine  it  closely,  but 
crawled  out  of  it  and  forward  into  another 
one  not  quite  so  large.  Tommy  came  along- 
side of  me. 

'  Can  you  see  the  German  wire  I ' 

I  looked  and  saw  a  shadowy  mass  not 
many  yards  in  front  of  me.  We  lay  listening 
for  some  time. 

'  I'm  going  to  wake  'em  up,'  whispered 
Tommy. 

'  What  are  you  going  to  do  ?  '  I  asked. 

'  Throw  a  bomb  into  his  trench  if  I 
can.' 

I  thrilled  with  anticipation.  This  was 
the  real  thing,  I  thought.  Tommy  stood 
up  in  the  bottom  of  the  shell-hole,  grasped 
the  bomb  in  his  hand,  pulled  the  pin  and 
stood  ready  to  throw  it.  I  trembled  with 


22  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

the  excitement  of  the  moment.  At  last  I 
heard  the  click  of  the  released  lever  as  the 
bomb  flew  over  my  head.  A  few  seconds 
later  there  is  a  flash  and  a  crash  as  the  bomb 
explodes.  Instantly  three  flare  lights  are 
shot  up,  breaking  almost  simultaneously, 
and  the  bullets  from  a  machine  gun  swish 
over  our  heads.  More  lights  go  up — the  Ger- 
man parapet  is  easily  visible.  We  stay 
there  perfectly  still.  After  a  few  minutes 
the  excitement  dies  down  and  we  start  back 
for  our  own  trench.  My  first  impulse  was  to 
get  up  and  walk,  but  I  recognised  that  cau- 
tion in  returning  was  every  bit  as  necessary 
as  caution  in  going  out.  The  amazing  thing 
to  me  was  the  directness  with  which  Tommy, 
despite  the  black  darkness,  went  out  and 
came  back  in  again.  Not  many  minutes 
after  we  had  started  on  our  return  journey 
I  heard  voices  in  front  of  me — it  was  Tommy 
talking  to  the  men  in  the  Listening  Post.  A 
few  minutes  afterwards  we  were  back  in  the 
protection  and  friendliness  of  our  own 
trench.  I  was  filled  with  a  feeling  of  ex- 
hilaration. No  Man's  Land  became  more 
fascinating  than  ever  to  me — it  was  a  place 
of  thrills  and  adventure ! 

The  next  morning  I  was  on  duty  in  the 


AN  AMBUSCADE  23 

O.P. — in  fact  most  of  the  day  was  spent 
there.  That  night  I  was  feeling  too  tired 
to  try  another  midnight  excursion  between 
the  lines.  However,  I  went  along  to  see  the 
scouts  before  they  went  out. 

*  Did  you  notice  that  big  hole  we  were  in 
last  night,'  Tommy  asked. 

'  All  I  noticed  was  that  it  was  a  pretty  big 
one,'  I  answered. 

1 1  intended  having  another  look  at  it 
when  we  were  coming  back,  but  missed  it,' 
continued  Tommy.  '  It  seemed  to  me  to 
be  smooth,  as  though  it  was  being  used  as 
a  Listening  Post  or  something  of  the  sort. 
I  intend  having  another  look  at  it  to- 
night.' 

I  stayed  till  they  had  gone,  then  went 
along  to  my  own  bit  of  a  shelter,  rolled 
myself  up  in  my  greatcoat,  and  was  soon 
fast  asleep.  At  daylight  I  was  again  sitting 
in  the  O.P.  scanning  the  German  trenches 
for  signs  of  movement  or  new  work.  I  had 
not  been  there  long  before  I  saw  a  German 
periscope  pushed  up,  the  interesting  thing 
about  it  being  that,  as  I  could  plainly  see  the 
glass  reflector,  I  could  also  see  the  face  of  the 
German  sentry  who  occasionally  looked  into 
it.  He  looked  frankly  bored  with  the  war 


24  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

and  his  particular  part  in  it.  I  had 
an  inspiration.  I  climbed  out  of  the  O.P. 
and  went  along  the  trench  until  I  found  one 
of  our  snipers.  We  went  back  to  the  O.P. 
and  I  pointed  out  to  him  the  periscope.  We 
then  went  along  to  a  sniping  post  from  which 
a  view  of  the  periscope  was  obtainable.  I 
left  him  there,  asking  him  to  wait  a  couple 
of  minutes  until  I  could  get  back  into  the 
O.P.  to  see  the  fun.  The  Hun  sentry  was 
looking  into  the  periscope  when  I  got  my 
glass  on  to  it  again.  I  had  only  a  few  seconds 
to  wait  when  a  bullet  went  right  into  the 
centre  of  the  reflector,  smashing  it  to  smith- 
ereens. I  was  satisfied  that  we  had  brought 
the  war  home  to  the  Hun  in  a  very  effective 
way.  A  few  minutes  afterwards  I  was 
joined  by  the  sniper.  I  congratulated  him 
on  his  shooting. 

'  Oh,  by  the  way,'  he  said,  '  did  you  hear 
about  the  scouts  having  a  big  scrap  in  No 
Man's  Land  last  night?  ' 

1  No,'  I  replied, '  what  happened?  ' 

'  Oh,  they  got  into  a  German  Listening 
Post  or  something  of  the  sort.' 

'  I  must  find  out  about  this  when  I  go 
back.' 

In  the  afternoon  when  off  duty  for  an 


AN  AMBUSCADE  25 

hour  or  two  I  went  along  to  the  scouts' 
dug-out. 

*  Hullo,  Tommy,'  I  said..  '  Heard  you 
had  a  fight  out  on  patrol  last  night.' 

'  Yes,'  he  answered;  '  sit  down  and  I'll 
tell  you  about  it.  You  remember  that  big 
hole  we  were  in  the  night  before  last?  ' 

'  Yes,'  I  replied. 

'  Well,  that  was  the  place  where  we  had 
all  the  fun.  Four  of  us  went  out  at  the  same 
place — the  Listening  Post.  We  passed  that 
shell-hole,  so  I  thought  we  would  examine  it 
when  coming  back.  We  crawled  around  for 
a  while,  getting  close  up  to  the  German  wire. 
In  coming  back  we  went  into  that  shell-hole 
— it  was  even  bigger  than  I  thought  it  was. 
In  examining  it  I  found  a  big  hole  in  the  side 
nearest  to  the  German  trench.  Covering 
this  hole  or  entrance  were  four  thick,  rough 
boards  laid  loosely  against  it.  While  I  was 
looking  at  these  I  heard  the  click  of  a  rifle 
bolt  just  inside  the  entrance.  Keeping  an 
eye  on  the  entrance,  I  motioned  a  scout  to 
take  up  a  position  in  a  clump  of  bushes  on 
top  of  the  opposite  side  of  the  shell-hole, 
another  one  to  lie  on  top  of  the  entrance 
looking  down  into  it,  while  the  other  one 
came  alongside  of  me.  When  we  were  all 


26  SCOUTING  THEILLS 

in  position  I  pushed  my  revolver  in  the 
crack  between  two  of  the  loose  boards,  and 
fired.  Immediately  there  was  a  rush  and  the 
boards  were  sent  flying  in  all  directions.  A 
bayonet  flashed  past  my  ear  and  a  Hun 
almost  fell  on  top  of  me.  I  pulled  the 
trigger  and  he  collapsed.  Inside  the  en- 
trance was  a  crowd  of  struggling,  shrieking 
Huns.  Three  of  us,  including  the  scout 
lying  on  top  of  the  entrance,  emptied  our 
revolvers  into  them  and  then  scattered.  A 
few  seconds  afterwards  bombs  were  thrown 
from  the  shell-hole,  but  we  were  well  clear  of 
it  by  then — at  least  I  was.  We  got  separated 
and  returned  singly  into  the  trench.' 

'  Say,  but  you  were  lucky  to  get  out  of 
it  so  easily.  But  what  were  the  Huns  doing 
packed  in  there  ?  ' 

6  We  've  been  talking  it  over.  It  was 
likely  that  they  heard  us  there  the  night 
before  last  and  then,  hearing  us  pass  there 
again  last  night,  they  had  decided  to  get  a 
big  party  together  to  cut  us  off  so  that  we 
couldn't  get  back  to  our  own  trench.  That 
was  a  tunnel  they  were  packed  in,  which  con- 
nected the  Listening  Post  with  the  German 
trench.  They  were  evidently  all  ready  in 
there  to  come  out  when  we  slipped  down  into 


AN  AMBUSCADE  27 

the  hole.  In  other  words,  we  got  there  ahead 
of  them. ' 

6  Well,  you  certainly  spoiled  their  little 
game,  didn't  you  ?  ' 

6  Yes,  we  certainly  did,  and  I  guess  we 
messed  up  a  few  of  them  too.' 

A  few  days  later  we  were  all  singing 
lustily  again  to  the  tune  of  Tommy's  old 
melodeon,  the  perils  and  thrills  of  No  Man's 
Land  forgotten.  It  was  hard  to  tell  in 
which  Tommy  excelled  most,  his  intrepidity 
as  a  scout  or  his  skill  as  a  musician.  After 
being  scout  officer  with  us  for  some  months 
he  was  selected,  on  account  of  his  special 
qualities  of  daring  and  initiative,  to  be  one 
of  a  secret  mission  sent  to  the  East.  But  we 
shall  meet  with  Tommy  again. 


II 

A  FIND 

sat  coughing  and  spluttering  over 
a  smouldering  wood  fire  which 
Sharkum,  the  Russian,  claimed  the  credit 
for  lighting. 

'  You  ought  to  be  shot  at  dawn  for  calling 
this  bunch  of  smoke  a  fire,  Sharkum/ 
coughed  Louis. 

*  Dat's  a  good  fire,'  responded  Sharkum; 
'  you  are  lazy,  want  other  peoples  mak  a 
fire  while  you  do  noding  else  but  sit  over 
it  so  that  other  peoples  can't  get  near.' 

'  Never  mind,  Sharkum,'  interrupted  Jack 
the  scout  sergeant,  '  you  can  stay  in  to- 
night and  look  after  your  fire.  Louis  can 
go  with  us  on  patrol.  Try  and  have  some 
warm  tea  ready  for  us  when  we  get  back.' 

'  That's  right,  Sharkum,'  I  chipped  in, 
'  you  keep  the  home  fires  burning  while  we 
go  and  look  for  one  of  those  terrible  Huns. 
Be  sure  to  have  the  sheets  aired  for  us  when 

28 


A  FIND  29 

we  get  back  and  sprinkle  them  well  with 
Keatings'.  I  love  the  taste  of  Keatings' 
when  I  wake  up  in  the  morning.' 

'  Yes,  Sharkum,'  said  the  irrepressible 
Louis,  '  you  see,  that's  what  we  keep  you 
in  the  section  for  while  we  men  go  out  and 
do  the  work.'  (Sharkum  would  easily  have 
made  two  of  Louis.)  '  Besides,  it's  safer 
in  the  dug-out,  and  you  can  keep  your  feet 
warm  down  here. ' 

Sharkum 's  eyes  began  to  gleam  angrily; 
he  was  neither  a  coward  nor  a  slacker.  Then 
he  saw  Louis  wasn't  in  earnest,  so  began  to 
help  us  into  our  crawling  suits.  Only 
three  of  us  were  going  out.  The  trenches 
were  close,  and  it  was  inadvisable  to 
send  out  large  patrols.  Clouds  were 
drifting  across  a  bright  moon.  We  waited 
for  the  clouds  to  hide  it,  for  Fritz  was  only 
seventy-five  yards  away.  Jack  crawled 
carefully  over  the  parapet  and  through  the 
wire,  and  I  followed.  I  was  lying  partly 
suspended  over  the  parapet,  when  a  cloud 
hurried  past  the  moon  and  it  shone  down 
clear  and  bright.  There  was  nothing  to  do 
but  wait  for  the  next  cloud,  and,  suspended 
there,  it  seemed  like  an  eternity  before 
another  cloud  came  along.  Louis  followed 


30  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

a  few  minutes  later.  We  were  now  out  in 
the  land  of  mine  craters ;  huge  holes,  some 
of  them  forty  and  fifty  feet  deep  in  the 
centre  and  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  yards 
across,  with  probably  a  post  of  ours  on  the 
lip,  and,  immediately  opposite,  a  post  of 
the  Germans.  The  possession  of  these  mine 
craters  was  often  fiercely  disputed,  and 
every  night  at  the  slightest  suspicion  of  a 
noise  bombs  would  be  dropped  into  these 
yawning  holes.  No  Man's  Land  on  Vimy 
Kidge  was  pitted  with  them — large  and 
small;  and  our*  patrols  consisted  chiefly 
in  crawling  into  and  around  them,  trying 
to  establish  definitely  the  location  of  the 
German  posts.  At  day-time  the  mine 
craters  were  very  lightly  held;  but  at 
night-time,  as  soon  as  men  could  move 
around  unseen,  they  came  crawling  out  to 
the  different  points  of  vantage  on  the  lip — 
bombers  and  machine  gunners  all  deter- 
mined to  hang  on  grimly  to  their  particular 
piece  of  crater!  And  so,  facing  each  other 
across  that  yawning  hole  were  perhaps  a 
score  or  more  of  men.  We  never  entered  the 
mine  crater  from  any  of  our  posts  on 
the  lip;  that  would  give  away,  if  seen,  the 
location  of  our  own  posts ;  and  also,  if  seen, 


A  FIND  31 

the  wily  Hun  would  wait  until  we  had  got 
well  down  into  the  crater.  Then  over 
would  come  his  bombs,  exploding  with  a 
deafening  reverberating  crash.  So,  knowing 
all  this,  we  usually  crawled  out  into  No 
Man's  Land  and  approached  these  craters 
in  about  the  centre  part.  Our  own  men,  if 
they  saw  us,  knew  who  we  were,  for  they 
had  been  warned  to  expect  to  see  us  there. 
In  our  patrol  of  the  night  of  this  story  we 
had  planned  to  go  into  one  of  these  craters, 
intending,  as  usual,  to  approach  it  in  the 
centre.  So  we  crawled  on  towards  it,  know- 
ing it  to  be  some  fifty  to  sixty  yards  from 
where  we  had  left  our  trench.  It  was 
while  we  were  crawling  towards  it  that  I 
had  the  greatest  fright  I  ever  had.  I  had 
moved  forward  a  few  yards  and  lay  listen- 
ing, when  what  appeared  to  me  to  be  a 
huge  dark  object  moved  swiftly  across  my 
face  about  an  inch  from  my  nose.  My 
heart  gave  a  great  bound  and  I  partly 
sprang  to  my  feet,  when  I  saw,  moving 
swiftly  away  from  me,  a  huge  rat!  Ever 
after  that,  when  on  patrol,  I  always  kept 
one  eye  on  the  look-out  for  rats  straying 
around.  A  few  minutes  later  we  reached 
the  mine  crater  and  lay  looking  down  into 


32  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

it.  Even  in  the  moonlight  the  bottom  of 
it  was  not  discernible.  After  listening  for 
some  time,  Jack  and  myself  crawled  quietly 
down  into  it,  leaving  Louis  on  the  look-out 
on  top.  We  crawled  up  to  have  a  look  at 
everything  that  appeared  suspicious.  A 
German  sentry  coughed  and  we  looked  up. 
We  could  see  the  top  of  his  steel  helmet 
glistening  in  the  moonlight.  We  spent 
nearly  an  hour  crawling  around  in  that 
weird  place  without  anything  eventful  hap- 
pening. I  went  back  for  Louis,  and  the 
three  of  us  then  crawled  out  at  the  other 
side.  It  was  a  relief  to  get  out  of  that 
dismal  hole.  After  resting  for  a  few  min- 
utes (for  crawling  is  hard,  tiring  work) 
we  made  off  in  the  direction  of  the  German 
trench.  We  carefully  wriggled  our  way 
into  the  German  wire  and  lay  there  listening. 
In  the  trench,  not  many  yards  to  our  right, 
we  could  plainly  hear  a  German  working 
party.  We  could  hear  a  succession  of  dull 
thuds  as  they  knocked  some  timbers  into 
the  ground,  apparently  repairing  a  trench. 
We  carefully  noted  the  location,  so  that, 
as  soon  as  we  returned  to  our  trench,  we 
could  notify  the  trench  mortar  men,  and 
they  would  lob  a  few  rounds  over,  to  the 


A  FIND  33 

discomfiture  of  the  working  party.  We 
wriggled  out  of  the  wire  and  continued  our 
wanderings.  We  were  nearing  another  mine 
crater  when  Jack — who  was  in  front — made 
a  warning  signal  with  his  foot.  Then 
another  signal — I  crawled  alongside  of  him. 
He  indicated  a  trench  in  front  of  him 
running  out  from  the  German  front  line 
(we  were  then  about  forty  yards  from  the 
German  trench) .  We  crawled  forward  un- 
til we  were  looking  down  into  it.  It  was  a 
good  trench,  and,  despite  the  mud  prevailing 
everywhere,  was  clean  and  in  good  condition. 
Jack  dropped  down  into  it.  After  a  few 
moments  he  looked  up. 

'  Somebody  has  been  in  here,  Mac,'  he 
said.  '  You  watch  for  any  one  coming 
from  that  direction  (indicating  the  German 
lines)  while  I  have  a  look  down  here.' 

He  went  off  in  the  direction  of  our  own 
lines,  while  I  lay  with  my  revolver  pointing 
in  the  direction  of  the  German  lines.  In  a 
very  few  moments  he  returned. 

'  Just  come  along  here,  Mac,  and  have  a 
look  at  this,'  he  said. 

I  followed  him  a  few  yards  along  the 
trench.  At  the  end  of  it  there  was  a  little 
shelter  reaching  almost  to  the  top.  Piled 


34  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

carefully  into  this  shelter,  in  neat  rows, 
were  about  a  score  of  German  minenwerf  er 
shells!  These  were  of  medium  size  and 
must  have  been  placed  there  recently. 
What  was  the  idea  ? 

i  What  do  you  think  it  is,  Jack ;  some 
kind  of  a  trap  where,  if  you  touch  one,  the 
whole  thing  goes  up  ?  '  I  suggested. 

6  No,  I  don't  think  so, '  he  replied.  <  Shall 
we  take  one  of  them  back  with  us  ?  ' 

6  Yes,  we  might  as  well.' 

I  watched  him  as  he  reached  to  get  one, 
not  having  entirely  got  rid  of  my  idea  that 
it  was  some  kind  of  a  trap,  and  half  expect- 
ing the  whole  thing  to  go  up.  But  nothing 
happened.  He  handed  the  shell  to  me:  it 
weighed  about  sixty  pounds. 

*  Not  much  chance  to  do  any  crawling  with 
this  in  your  arms, '  I  remarked. 

'  No,  we  can't  crawl  with  it;  it's  a  case  of 
getting  up  and  walking.' 

'  How  far  do  you  think  we  are  from  our 
nearest  post  ?  ' 

'  Probably  fifty  to  sixty  yards. ' 

'  Could  you  go  to  it  in  a  straight  line  from 
here? ' 

'  Yes,  easily.' 

6  All  right,  you  start  off.    Get  into  that 


A  FIND  35 

post  and  I'll  follow  behind  with  this ' 
(lovingly  hugging  the  Minnie). 

'  Righto, '  he  said,  climbed  out  of  the 
trench  and  made  off  in  the  direction  of  our 
post.  When  he  had  got  about  half  way  I 
laid  the  Minnie  shell  carefully  on  the  outside 
of  the  trench  (we  weren't  sure  whether  or 
not  it  was  detonated),  climbed  out,  picked 
up  the  shell,  and  followed  in  the  direction 
Jack  was  going.  The  shell  was  heavy  and 
the  mud  knee-deep  and  indescribably  sticky. 
I  had  intended  to  go  quickly  but  struggled 
along,  experiencing  that  nice  creeping  night- 
mare feeling  where,  try  as  you  will,  you 
cannot  escape  from  the  horrible  fate  over- 
taking you.  I  reached  our  post.  Jack 
was  standing  waiting  for  me,  and  I  handed 
him  the  shell  before  jumping  down  into  the 
trench.  The  two  or  three  men  in  the  post 
crowded  around  to  see  what  we  had  got. 

'  A  Minnie  shell  that  we  found  out  there,' 
explained  Jack;  'there's  a  small  dug-out 
full  of  them  piled  neatly  up  in  rows.' 

6  Is  it  detonated  ?  '  queried  one  interested 
youth. 

'  Don't  know,'  answered  Jack.  '  I  expect 
it  is.' 

6  Punch  it  on  the  nose  with  the  butt  of 


36  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

your  rifle,'  suggested  Louis,  '  that 's  the 
best  way  to  find  out.  If  it  explodes,  it  is 
detonated — if  it  doesn't,  it  isn't  detonated. 
Quite  simple.' 

But  nobody  showed  any  enthusiasm  for 
Louis'  method. 

4 1  '11  carry  it  part  of  the  way,  Jack,'  I 
offered. 

1  All  right,  Mac,  'he  replied,  *  we'll  spell  each 
other  off;  it's  a  pretty  heavy  thing  to  carry.' 

I  hoisted  the  shell  on  to  my  shoulder,  but, 
as  it  had  been  raining  recently  and  the  duck- 
boards  were  wet  and  slippery,  I  stumbled 
forward.  There  was  a  rush — half  a 
dozen  pairs  of  hands  seized  hold  of  me 
to  steady  me!  Nobody  seemed  disposed 
to  take  a  chance  with  that  shell.  It 
might  not  be  detonated,  and  then  again  it 
might!  Preceded  by  Jack  and  followed  by 
Louis,  I  staggered  along  on  my  adventurous 
journey  back  to  headquarters.  Every  time 
I  slipped,  Louis  rushed  alongside  of  me. 
We  came  to  a  narrow  part  of  the  trench 
where  it  was  impossible  for  two  men  to 
pass.  Our  passage  was  stubbornly  dis- 
puted by  two  husky  Canucks. 

*  Gangway  there,'  shouted  Jack,  '  make 
way  for  a  party.' 


A  FIND  37 

*  Gangway  yourself,  we  were  here  before 
you  chaps,'  came  back  the  quick  reply. 

'  Whoever  goes  back,  we  don't,'  an- 
nounced Jack,  and  started  pushing  his  way 
past. 

I  followed,  staggering  along  under  the 
burden  of  the  Minnie  shell.  But  our  two 
friends  were  as  determined  as  we  were,  and 
so  we  all  got  jammed  tight  in  the  trench. 
My  hold  upon  the  Minnie  shell  became 
loosened — it  wobbled  dangerously  around  on 
my  shoulder. 

'  For  God's  sake  watch  that  you  don't 
drop  that  shell,  Mac, 'spoke  up  Louis,  the 
diplomat,  from  behind ;  '  if  that  nose-cap 
hits  the  ground  it  will  blow  us  all  to  blazes 
for  sure.' 

'  What  d'you  mean?  '  asked  one  of  the 
men, '  what  shell  is  this  ?  ' 

'  The  shell  right  in  front  of  your  nose 
there,'  replied  Louis;  *  it's  a  German 
Minnie  shell  we  found  in  a  dug-out  in  No 
Man's  Land.  The  fuse  is  so  instantaneous 
that  if  you  stroke  the  nose-cap  with  a 
feather  the  whole  crowd  of  us  would  be 
blown  sky-high.' 

*  Is  that  right?' 

*  Sure  thing,'  chorused  the  three  of  us. 


38  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

'  Just  a  minute,  fellows ;  we  '11  go  back 
and  make  way  for  you,'  one  of  them 
earnestly  and  genially  assured  us. 

'  Thanks,'  said  Louis,  '  we  want  to  get 
rid  of  this  thing  as  soon  as  we  can.' 

We  passed  on  without  any  further  trouble. 
Our  next  obstacle  was  a  working  party 
cleaning  out  the  trench  where  it  had  been 
almost  levelled  during  the  day  by  Minnies. 

'  Gangway, '  called  out  Jack. 

But  the  man  swinging  the  pick  failed  to 
take  any  notice. 

'  Gangway  for  a  party,'  called  out  Jack 
again. 

The  man  stopped  and  looked  up.  Like 
most  members  of  a  working  party,  he  wasn't 
a  bit  inclined  to  be  genial  and  obliging. 

'  What  party?  '  he  growled. 

'  Scouts.' 

'  Well,  you  can  wait ;  we  'd  be  here  all 
night  if  we  let  everybody  pass  that  comes 
along.  Wait  until  a  crowd  collects  and  then 
we  let  you  pass. ' 

1  Yes,  but  I  can't  wait,'  I  called  out. 

'  Why  can't  you? — afraid  you  '11  be  late 
for  the  second  house  or  something?  ' 

'  Well,  I  don't  feel  like  dangling  this 
Minnie  on  my  shoulder  much  longer,  and 


A  FIND  39 

if  I  drop  the  cursed  thing  it  will  blow  us  all 
to  kingdom  come. ' 

'  What  fairy  tale  is  this  about  a  Minnie  ?  ' 

6  No  fairy  tale  at  all.  We  found  a  dug- 
out full  of  Minnie  shells  out  in  No  Man's 
Land  and  brought  one  in  to  be  examined. 
Now,  if  you  don't  get  out  of  the  way  I  '11 
throw  the  thing  at  you. ' 

'  Gangway  for  a  carrying  party,'  he 
yelled. 

The  cry  was  taken  up  and  passed  on,  and 
we  soon  were  clear  of  the  working  party. 
Nothing  further  eventful  happened  until  we 
reached  headquarters.  Jack,  who  was 
carrying  the  shell  now,  staggered  into  head- 
quarters, while  I  remained  discreetly  on  the 
outside  of  the  blanket  screening  the  C.O.'s 
compartment. 

'  Well,  Jackson,'  I  heard  the  C.O.  genially 
remark,  *  and  what 's  this  you  've  got  with 
you.' 

'  A  Minnie  shell,  sir,'  replied  Jack. 

'  A  Minnie  shell !  '  inquired  the  C.O.  with 
interest,  '  where  on  earth  did  you  get  it 
from?  ' 

'  Pound  it  in  No  Man's  Land,  sir,'  replied 
Jack,  and  then  proceeded  to  give  him  the 
history  of  our  discovery. 


40  SCOUTING  THEILLS 

'  Um:  most  interesting,  most  interesting.' 
And  then,  suspiciously,  '  Is  it  detonated1?  ' 

'  Don't  know,  sir,'  replied  Jack. 

'  What's  that — you  don't  know!'  he 
roared;  '  then  how  dare  you  bring  that 
cursed  thing  in  here !  take  it  out !  take  it  out 
at  once !  ' 

I  heard  Jack  getting  ready  to  obey,  then 
the  C.O.  again: 

'  I  suppose  you  're  cold  and  wet,  Jackson,' 
he  said  relentingly. 

6  Yes,  sir,'  said  Jack,  '  it's  wet  and  muddy 
out  to-night. ' 

'  Well,  you  'd  better  have  a  drink  of  some- 
thing warm,  and  then  take  that  thing 
to  somebody  who  knows  something  about  it.' 

I  listened  enviously  as  Jack  rather  noisily 
(for  my  benefit)  partook  of  the  C.O.'s  hos- 
pitality. He  came  out,  still  carrying  the 
Minnie. 

'  The  C.O.  doesn't  want  it,'  he  remarked 
tome. 

'  So  I  understood  from  his  remarks,'  I 
replied.  '  Where  are  we  going  to  take  it 
now?  ' 

4  I  think  we  had  better  find  the  heavy 
trench  mortar  people;  they  might  know 
something  about  it.' 


A  FIND  41 

*  Yes,  but  do  you  know  where  they  are  ?  ' 
6 1  know  where  the  signallers'  dug-out  is 

at,'  he  replied. 

*  All  right,  let  Louis  carry  it  now ;  '  so  it 
was  passed  on  to  Louis. 

A  few  minutes  later  I  felt  my  way  down 
the  steps  of  the  dug-out  mentioned. 

4  This  the  heavy  trench  mortars  ?  ' 

'  Yes,  anything  you  want  ?  ' 

'  Do  you  know  anything  about  Minnie 
shells?  ' 

*  Yes,  a  little.' 

'  Well,  we  have  one  here  that  we  found 
in  a  dug-out  in  No  Man's  Land.  There 
were  about  a  score  of  them  neatly  piled  in 
rows.  We  want  to  find  out  if  it  is  detonated. 
Can  you  help  us  out  ?  ' 

Just  then  Louis  lurched  in,  and  was  pre- 
paring to  drop  the  shell  on  to  the  ground 
when  a  corporal  hastily  interrupted : 

'  Go  easy,  we  have  no  desire  to  hit  the 
roof  in  a  hurry,'  he  said. 

So  Louis  carefully  deposited  the  shell  on 
a  bench  in  the  dug-out. 

Nobody  present  had  seen  a  similar  shell, 
and  there  was  a  very  marked  lack  of 
curiosity  about  it.  We  began  to  feel  un- 
comfortable; it  was  apparent  that,  for  an 


42  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

obvious  reason,  we  were  not  particularly 
wanted.  Personally  I  was  beginning  to 
hate  the  sight  of  that  shell;  we  had  been 
carrying  it  around  for  nearly  two  hours. 
Then  I  had  a  bright  idea. 

'  I  suppose  you  fellows  would  like  to  keep 
this  shell  to  examine  it  in  your  spare  time. 
Besides,  brigade  will  want  a  report  on  it 
and  we  can  refer  them  to  you. ' 

'  Oh  no,  we  don't  know  anything  about 
Boche  Minnie  shells;  we  think  you  had 
better  take  it  away.  We  're  busy  and  the 
dug-out  is  crowded. ' 

Then  we  began  to  get  stubborn. 

'  Look  here,'  said  Louis,  '  we  don't  deal 
in  these  things  and  we  were  told  to  bring  it 
to  you.  Now  you  've  got  it,  we  '11  be  getting 
on  back  to  our  headquarters.' 

4  No;  I  '11  tell  you  what  to  do  with  it,' 
began  one  smooth-tongued  youth,  '  take 
it  over  to  the  officer,  he  knows  all  about  these 
things. ' 

'  We  don't  know  where  the  officer  is  at,' 
interrupted  Jack,  '  and  we  are  not  going  to 
look  for  him  either.' 

'  That  's  all  right,'  continued  the  youth, 
' 1  '11  take  you  over  there.' 

We  were   defeated;   there  was  nothing 


A  FIND  43 

else  for  it  but  to  pick  up  our  shell  and  go ! 
Eager  willing  hands  assisted  me  to  get  it 
on  to  my  shoulder.  The  cold  unfriendly 
atmosphere  of  the  dug-out  vanished,  it  be- 
came permeated  with  a  genial  warmth  and 
good  fellowship!  A  man  preceded  me  up 
the  steps  with  a  light  and  two  more  followed 
close  behind,  in  case  I  stumbled  and  fell. 
Once  outside  the  dug-out  we  followed  in  the 
wake  of  our  guide. 

'  Look  here,'  began  Louis,  *  let 's  throw 
the  cursed  thing  away.  Nobody  wants  it, 
and  we  're  '  all  in  '  with  carrying  it  around.' 

6  We  can't  do  that,'  argued  Jack,  i  the 
C.O.  will  send  us  out  to  get  another  if  we 
throw  this  one  away.' 
I-  After  some  minutes  we  arrived  at  the 
officer's  dug-out,  which  our  guide  indicated 
and  then  vanished.  Jack  went  in  to  inter- 
view him,  and  soon  reappeared  bringing  the 
officer  with  him. 

*  That 's  all  right,  boys ;  just  throw  the 
shell  down  outside  and  come  on  in,  you  must 
be  cold  and  wet.' 

What  a  relief  it  was  to  find  some  one  who 
really  said  '  throw  the  shell  down  and  leave 
it  there !  '  We  did  so. 

As  we  were  disappearing  into  the  dug-out, 


44  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

I  heard  Louis  saying — partly  to  himself, 
'  Well,  I  don't  care  what  it  is  we  find  in 
No  Man's  Land  again,  if  it  weighs  more  than 
four  ounces  it  stays  right  where  it  is  at. 
I  've  had  enough  of  carting  munitions 
around  to-night  to  satisfy  me  for  the  rest 
of  the  war.' 


Ill 

EXPLODING  A  MINE 

'LJFALLO,  old  man,  what  are  you  look- 
-*•  •*•  ing  so  serious  about — aren't  you 
getting  enough  fun  out  of  the  war?  ' 

*  Keep  quiet,  1 'm  listening.' 

6  Listening !  really,  you  are  almost  at  the 
point  of  making  a  joke!  Of  all  the  faults 
to  be  found  with  the  war  the  lack  of  noise 
isn't  one  of  them.' 

'  Keep  quiet,  you  fool,  I  think  I  can  hear 
tapping.' 

'  Oh !  '  then  I  became  serious,  too. 

'  There  's  no  doubt  about  it,  he  's  mining 
under  here.' 

4  How  thrilling !  I  hope  he  gives  me  time 
to  clear  out  before  he  explodes  it.' 

'  Oh,  it 's  not  a  new  discovery  by  any 
means.  It  has  been  reported  before,  and 
we  've  been  warned  to  expect  a  mine  to  go 
up  here.' 

This  is  typical  of  the  days  when  the  '  war 

45 


46  SCOUTING  THEILLS 

of  movement '  was  upwards  instead  of 
onwards.  Of  all  the  weird  and  hair-raising 
experiences,  the  exploding  of  a  mine  had 
them  all  beaten.  Suspense  is  said  to  be  the 
most  terrible  and  distressing  of  all  human 
emotions,  and  the  suspense  of  daily  and 
hourly  expecting  a  mine  to  go  up  could 
very  properly  be  spelt  with  a  big  capital  S. 
The  winter  of  1916  was  a  very  active  period 
for  mining  and  counter-mining.  Any  one 
caring  to  look  up  the  British  Official  reports 
for  that  period  will  frequently  come  across 
the  words:  '  The  enemy  exploded  a  mine 
last  night  in  the  Ypres  sector,  our  troops 
hold  the  crater  ' ;  or  '  We  exploded  a  mine 
last  night  in  the  Hulluch  sector,  causing 
considerable  damage  to  the  enemy  trenches ; 
during  the  night  we  repulsed  three  enemy 
attempts  to  seize  the  crater.' 

As  soon  as  it  was  definitely  established 
that  the  enemy  were  mining  under  a  par- 
ticular sector  of  trench,  then  a  counter- 
mine was  promptly  started,  and  it  was 
usually  a  race  as  to  who  could  get  ready 
first.  Often  the  mere  fact  of  a  counter- 
mine underneath  the  Boche  mine  galleries 
was  sufficient  to  discourage  the  Boche  and 
compel  him  to  quit.  Sometimes  a  tunnel 


EXPLODING  A  MINE  47 

was  bored  into  the  Boche  galleries,  and 
some  strange  and  thrilling  stories  are  told. 
But  this  could  not  beat  the  thrill  (often 
accompanied  by  a  chill!)  that  the  garrison 
holding  the  sector  of  trench  under  which 
the  mining  was  going  on,  usually  experi- 
enced. The  anxious  moments  came  when 
all  sounds  of  working  stopped,  then  it  was 
a  fair  guess  that  the  Boche  had  all  ready  to 
explode  his  mine.  Elaborate  plans  were 
made  for  seizing  the  crater  in  case  the  mine 
should  be  exploded.  What  were  known  as 
1  crater  parties  '  were  detailed.  As  soon  as 
the  mine  was  exploded  these  parties  would 
rush  forward  and  fight  for  the  crater.  The 
trench  that  was  mined  would  be  very  lightly 
garrisoned,  and  the  job  of  the  garrison  was  a 
most  hated  and  unenviable  one.  Did  the 
mine  go  up  they  inevitably  went  with  it. 
At  other  times  the  trench  would  be  evacu- 
ated and  '  flying  sentries  '  (men,  usually  in 
pairs)  patrolled  that  piece  of  trench.  Mining 
was  really  a  most  hateful  and  diabolical 
thing.  Every  new  crater  promptly  received 
a  name—'  The  Duke,'  *  The  Prince,'  *  The 
Twins,'  and,  most  appropriate  of  all,  '  The 
Surprise  '  crater.  Their  name  was  literally 
legion — they  were  named  after  towns,  indi- 
viduals, and  regiments. 


48  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

This  particular  story  deals  with  the  ex- 
ploding of  one  of  these  diabolical  mines, 
and  the  sequel  to  it. 

It  was  in  the  winter  of  '16-17  on  the  fa- 
mous Vimy  Ridge.  It  was  touch  and  go  as 
to  whether  the  Hun  or  ourselves  got  his  mine 
finished  first.  The  whole  ridge  was  mined 
and  counter-mined,  but  the  chief  interest 
for  the  moment  was  centred  upon  the  sector 
we  were  holding.  Each  night,  when  on 
patrol,  we  received  several  rude  jars  as  we 
crawled  around  on  our  stomachs.  There 
would  be  a  thud  underneath  us  and  the 
sensation  that  some  one  had  given  us  a  punch 
in  the  stomach.  It  was  the  miners  blasting 
— whose,  we  could  not  say.  The  first  time 
I  felt  it  I  thought  it  was  the  preliminary 
to  the  upheaval  of  earth,  and  my  heart  gave 
a  great  bound.  I  had  a  lightning  vision  of 
a  rapid  ascent,  and  bumping  my  head 
against  the  stars.  But  nothing  sensa- 
tional followed.  In  the  present  instance 
our  miners  guaranteed  us  an  easy  first. 
However,  I  had  a  decided  dislike  to  '  stick- 
ing around  '  that  piece  of  trench,  under- 
neath which  we  could  distinctly  hear  the 
mining  activities  going  on.  At  last  definite 
rumours  began  to  circulate. 


EXPLODING  A  MINE  49 

'  Did  you  hear  they  were  going  to  put  up 
a  mine  to-morrow  night  ?  '  was  whispered 
around.  Of  course,  everything  had  to 
happen  the  following  day  to  give  it  a  claim 
to  our  interest.  Two  or  three  days  passed, 
so  that  the  rumour  became  thoroughly  dis- 
credited. Then  it  became  more  than  a 
rumour;  it  became  a  certainty.  Men  were 
detailed  to  mysterious  parties  known  by 
letters  A,  B,  C,  and  so  on.  Headquarters 
buzzed  with  excitement,  and  large  quan- 
tities of  wire,  picks,  and  shovels  began  to 
arrive. 

'  The  mine  was  ready!  '  everybody  swore 
to  that.  '  To-morrow  night,'  became  the 
popular  rumour  again,  and  this  time  it 
proved  to  be  correct.  The  exact  time  was 
now  the  mystery.  To-morrow  came  and 
with  it  bits  of  information — real  genuine 
information — began  to  leak  out.  One  party 
had  been  detailed  to  rush  and  hold  the 
crater ;  another  party  was  to  string  out  wire 
from  the  lip  of  the  crater  back  to  our 
front  line  trench;  other  parties  were  to 
clear  away  the  debris  that  would  fall  into 
the  trenches ;  others  were  to  rush  up  with 
bombs  and  ammunition  to  the  crater  party. 
The  scouts  were  not  allotted  any  definite 


50  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

task  in  the  scheme  of  things :  '  ours  not  to 
do  or  die,'  but  simply  to  await  for  what 
might  turn  up.  Rumours  as  to  the  amazing 
quantities  of  explosive  carefully  packed  in 
the  mine  began  to  float  around.  The  size 
of  the  crater  was  speculated  upon.  Then 
information  of  a  raid  by  the  battalion  on 
our  right,  which  was  to  co-ordinate  with  the 
exploding  of  the  mine,  reached  our  ears.  We 
were  all  properly  worked  up,  and  excite- 
ment ran  high.  There  was  prevailing 
satisfaction  and  jubilation  that  our  mine 
was  ready  first,  and  that  the  Hun  was  going 
to  get  the  mauling.  There  was  many  a  fer- 
vently expressed  hope  that  it  would  blow 
them  all  sky-high  out  of  the  trenches. 
Scores  of  men  swarmed  around  that  after- 
noon, and  everything  was  ready  for  the  big 
show.  At  last  the  exact  time  was  whispered 
around  '  Three  minutes  to  ten !  '  The  mine, 
of  course,  was  to  be  exploded  by  electricity ; 
some  one  would  touch  a  button,  then  up 
would  go  the  Hun  and  several  thousand  tons 
of  Vimy  Ridge  would  be  propelled  into  the 
air.  It  appealed  to  the  imagination.  Down 
in  the  scouts'  dug-out  we  discussed  and  re- 
discussed  the  matter. 

'  I    suppose    the    old    Hun    will    think 


EXPLODING  A  MINE  51 

it 's  the  end  of  the  world,'  commented 
Louis. 

'  I  schould  tink  so,'  said  Sharkum  the 
Russian,  '  his  peoples  won't  know  where  to 
look  for  him.' 

It  was  a  quiet,  clear  night,  and  the  war 
went  on  as  usual.  Soon  after  dark  rations 
came  up,  and  we  sat  around  and  read  the 
letters  that  arrived.  There  was  a  paper  two 
days  old,  and  there  was  a  scramble  for  the 
latest  news  of  the  war.  Our  own '  big  show  ' 
suffered  a  temporary  eclipse;  it  appeared 
so  relatively  insignificant  alongside  of  the 
many  big  things  reported.  But  it  soon  came 
back  into  its  own.  We  talked  of  the 
time  when  a  mine  had  unexpectedly  gone 
up  and  we  sat,  wild-eyed  and  startled,  until 
the  dug-out  ceased  its  swaying  motion. 

About  a  quarter  to  ten  Jack  said, '  Who  's 
going  outside  to  see  the  fun  ?  ' 

' 1  am,'  I  replied. 

So  we  went  outside  and  waited.  We 
could  picture  the  boys  waiting  back  in  the 
support  and  communication  trenches,  ready 
to  rush  forward  on  the  separate  jobs.  We 
speculated  who  would  get  there  first,  the 
Hun's  crater  party  or  ours — we  were  willing 
to  bet  on  our  boys.  The  front  line  trenches 


52  SCOUTING  THEILLS 

had,  of  course,  been  cleared  of  men,  the 
danger  from  falling  debris  being  almost  as 
great  as  that  from  exploding  shells  and 
'  Minnies.'  For  an  hour  it  would  probably 
be  touch  and  go  as  to  who  held  the  crater. 
The  exploding  of  the  mine  wasn't  the  fun: 
it  was  what  would  happen  afterwards,  and  it 
was  in  this  that  we  got  the  comforting 
thought  that  we  would  get  a  chance  to  do 
our  bit. 

We  looked  at  our  watches — it  wanted  only 
a  minute!  In  sixty  seconds  from  now  the 
ground  would  rock  and  shake  as  if  in  the 
throes  of  a  violent  earthquake !  We  strain 
our  eyes  in  the  direction  where  the  fun  is 
going  to  take  place.  Somewhere  there  is  a 
man  standing  with  his  finger  on  an  electric 
button,  watch  in  his  hand ;  the  second  hand 
steals  around — forty — thirty — twenty — ten 
— five  seconds !  Then  he  presses  the  button. 
Standing  there  we  see  the  result.  There  is 
a  great  blinding  flash,  a  muffled  noise,  and 
the  ground  sways  and  trembles  beneath  our 
feet. 

6  There  it  goes !  '  we  whisper  breathlessly. 
A  pause,  and  then  our  shells  come  scream- 
ing over  our  heads — it  is  our  artillery.  To 
add  to  the  dismay,  confusion,  and  panic  in 


EXPLODING  A  MINE  53 

the  Boche  lines,  we  send,  crashing  over, 
shrapnel  and  high  explosive.  It  will  give 
our  men  an  advantage.  We  can  picture 
them  struggling  forward  in  the  darkness 
over  the  debris.  They  reached  the  lip  of  the 
crater  and  string  themselves  out  on  each 
side  of  it.  They  are  there  first  and  they  are 
going  to  hold  on. 

In  the  darkness  of  No  Man's  Land  on  our 
right,  men  are  stumbling  forward  to  surprise 
the  Hun  in  his  trench.  It  is  a  night  of  sur- 
prises for  him.  Right  and  left  of  the  crater 
the  Hun  signals  frantically  for  his  artillery. 
Shells  come  shrieking  over,  exploding 
with  a  deafening  roar.  We  have  to  side- 
step once  or  twice  as  they  come  crashing 
alongside.  He  pours  them  over  into 
Zouave  Valley  just  behind  us.  The  noise 
is  deafening,  terrific!  To  the  right  we 
see  an  immense  blinding  flash. 

'  What  can  it  be  ?  '  we  ask.  It  is  for  all 
the  world  like  the  explosion  of  another  mine. 
Later  on  we  find  that  a  Boche  shell  landed 
in  the  midst  of  nearly  two  score  of  our 
trench-mortar  shells  and  exploded  them 
all. 

After  a  time  things  quieten  down  and  we 
return  to  our  dug-out. 


54  SCOUTING  THKILLS 

*  Well,  Louis,  did  you  feel  anything  down 
here  ?  '  I  asked. 

'  Feel  anything !  I  should  say  so —  almost 
pushed  in  the  side  of  the  dug-out.' 

6  The  old  Hun  didn't  take  it  all  lying 
down.  His  artillery  must  have  had  their 
sleeves  rolled  up  for  a  few  minutes;  he 
bounced  a  few  shells  pretty  close  to  us. ' 

i  I  guess  the  mine  also  bounced  a  few  of 
the  Huns, '  said  Louis ; i  some  of  them  would 
get  the  shock  of  their  lives  to-night !  '  And 
so  we  carried  on  the  conversation  for 
another  half  hour,  occasionally  calling 
Sharkum's  attention  to  the  smoky,  smoul- 
dering fire,  to  which  he  good-naturedly 
replied. 

6  Well,  if  there's  any  peoples  here  can  do 
better  let  him  haf  a  try.' 

We  were  speculating  upon  our  chances  of 
getting  a  look  at  the  new  mine  crater,  when 
'  Tommy  '  (now  our  officer)  came  into  the 
dug-out.  He  was  excited. 

'  That  was  a  good  show  to-night!  We 
are  holding  the  crater  and  have  already 
beaten  off  one  Hun  attempt.  They  gave 
them  an  awful  beating  up.  I  've  been  out 
a  little  way.  It  is  a  huge  crater,  bigger 
than  any  around  here.  It  has  blown  up 


EXPLODING  A  MINE  55 

part  of  the  Hun  front  line.  We  could  hear 
some  of  them  trying  to  dig  themselves  out 
of  a  dug-out.  Let  everybody  get  ready  and 
we  '11  go  up  at  once  and  wait  for  them 
coming  out. ' 

Immediately  there  was  a  hustle  and 
bustle  as  we  dived  into  our  crawling  suits, 
loaded  our  revolvers,  and  got  a  couple  of 
bombs  each.  Soon  afterwards  we  were 
hurrying  up  to  the  front  line.  We  met 
a  prisoner  coming  down;  he  had  been 
blown  up  into  the  air  when  the  mine  ex- 
ploded, and  when  he  came  down  he  had 
got  twisted  in  his  direction.  He  had  been 
seen  wandering  around  just  outside  of  our 
wire,  and  some  good-natured  Tommy  went 
out  and  led  him  in  by  the  hand.  He  was 
dazed  and  trembling,  as  he  had  every  reason 
to  be. 

We  arrived  at  the  crater,  on  the  lip  of 
which  two  or  three  posts  had  already  been 
established.  Looking  down  into  the  crater 
we  could  only  see  a  yawning  black  hole, 
but  the  lips,  several  feet  high,  showed  up 
white  and  distinct — the  chalky  earth  of 
Vimy  Ridge. 

While  Tommy  had  been  away  there  had 
been  another  attempt  to  rush  the  crater, 


56  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

and  after  a  sharp  fight  with  rifle  and  bomb, 
the  Hun  had  again  been  beaten  off.  Seven 
of  us  started  off  on  a  patrol,  crawling  along 
the  right  side  of  the  lip  of  the  crater.  We 
hoped,  first  of  all,  to  get  around  to  the  Hun 
side  to  see  what  was  happening  there,  and 
then  to  visit  the  entombed  Huns,  to  see  how 
they  were  getting  on  with  their  digging. 
Three  of  us  went  abreast — Tommy  nearest 
the  crater,  Jack  in  the  centre,  and  myself 
on  the  outside.  Behind  us  came  four  other 
scouts.  We  could  only  move  very  slowly, 
for  the  Hun  kept  the  place  alight  with 
flares.  We  had  crawled  forward  to  a  point 
almost  level  with  the  Hun  front  line  trench 
on  our  right.  The  trench  which  should 
have  been  there  on  our  left  had  been  blown 
up.  We  lay  listening  to  the  weird  muffled 
knockings  and  scrapings  that  came  from 
the  imprisoned  Huns,  who  were  working 
hard  to  get  out  of  their  dug-out.  Then  we 
heard  other  significant  sounds  on  our  right, 
the  squish!  squish!  of  men  dragging  their 
feet  through  soft  mud.  It  was  the  sound 
of  Huns  coming  along  their  front  line 
towards  the  crater!  I  moved  over  to  Jack 
and  touched  his  arm. 

*  Did  you  hear  that,  Jack  ?  ' 


EXPLODING    A  MINE  57 

*  Yes,  Mac,  I  heard;  just  stay  quiet  and 
watch.' 

Almost  opposite  the  point  where  we  were 
lying  there  was  another  trench — a  com- 
munication trench,  leading  into  the  front 
line  and  at  right  angles  to  it.  Huns  were 
also  moving  up  along  this.  The  sounds 
became  more  distinct,  and  presently  we 
could  see  the  steel  helmets  of  the  Huns. 

While  we  lay  breathless  watching  them, 
the  leading  man  stopped  at  the  junction  of 
the  communication  trench  with  the  front 
line.  The  others  following  him  closed  up, 
until  there  was  an  interval  of  no  more  than 
two  feet  between  them.  Then  very  de- 
liberately (for  I  was  not  more  than  twenty 
yards  from  the  nearest  Hun,  and  therefore 
could  plainly  see  them  by  the  frequent 
flickering  lights  of  the  flares)  each  man 
carefully  raised  his  rifle,  and  sighted  it  in 
our  direction!  A  queer,  creepy  sensation 
ran  through  me — it  was  for  all  the  world 
like  facing  a  firing  squad ! 

'  Throw  your  bombs!  '  rang  out  Tommy's 
voice. 

The  scouts  in  the  rear  promptly  threw 
their  bombs,  while  I  let  blaze  with  my 
revolver.  Almost  simultaneously  nearly 


58  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

thirty  rifles  rang  out  and  the  bullets  pinged 
in  around  us.  Then  four  bombs  viciously 
exploded  amongst  and  around  the  Huns, 
one  bomb  neatly  dropping  into  the  trench 
amongst  them.  The  Huns  disappeared 
from  view,  and  then  bobbed  up  again. 
Several  of  them  promptly  threw  bombs 
back  at  us.  I  felt  a  rap  on  the  head  as  if 
a  mule  had  kicked  me,  and  then  the  warm 
blood  began  trickling  down  the  side  of  my 
face  and  into  my  right  eye.  I  blinked  and 
pulled  the  trigger  of  my  revolver  again. 
Then  more  of  our  bombs  came  singing  over 
my  head  and  burst  amongst  the  Huns. 
This  time  it  was  too  mudh  for  them.  Again 
they  disappeared  and  remained  out  of  sight. 
I  was  lying  there,  dazed  and  stunned,  when 
I  felt  Jack  crawl  up  alongside  of  me. 

'  We  'd  better  be  getting  back  in,  Mac, 
the  rest  of  them  have  gone  back  for  more 
bombs.' 

'  All  right,'  I  replied,  '  you  lead  the  way; 
I  'm  hit  and  feel  a  bit  shaky.' 

'  All  right,  Mac,  when  I  give  the  word  get 
up  and  run  for  the  crater  and  roll  into  that.' 

I  waited  a  few  seconds  and  then  heard 
Jack  whisper,  '  Come  on,  Mac,  run  for  it !  ' 

I  scrambled  to  my  feet,  swayed  a  little 


EXPLODING  A  MINE  59 

from  dizziness,  and  then  started  off  after 
Jack.  Then,  horror  of  horrors,  a  flare  light 
was  shot  up  from  a  few  yards  behind  us. 
It  broke  into  a  bright  white  light — as  bright 
as  noon-day.  There  was  nothing  for  it  but 
to  keep  on  heading  for  the  crater,  which  was 
only  a  few  strides  away. 

Ping!  ping!  came  the  bullets  after  us. 
I  saw  Jack  disappear  in  front  of  me,  as  he 
tumbled  headlong  into  the  crater.  I  dived 
after  him,  and  down  I  went  into  the  black- 
ness, it  seemed  ages  before  I  hit  the  bottom 
with  a  terrible  crash.  Jack  was  imme- 
diately alongside  of  me  helping  me  to 
my  feet. 

'  How  d'you  feel,  Mac?  '  he  asked. 

*  Oh !  just  a  bit  dizzy,  thanks ;  rather  close 
shave,  eh?  ' 

6  Yes,  it  was.  I  didn't  realise  for  a  minute 
or  two  that  we  were  out  there  alone, 
though  I  heard  Tommy  giving  the  word 
to  go  back  for  more  bombs.' 

The  blood  continued  to  run  down  my  face, 
almost  blinding  me. 

'  Oh,  I  wouldn't  half  like  to  take  a  crack 
at  the  Hun  that  did  this,'  I  said,  as  we 
proceeded  to  climb  out  of  the  crater. 
When  we  climbed  out  Tommy  was  there. 


60  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

He  at  once  ordered  me  to  report  to  the 
dressing  station  and  sent  a  scout  back  with 
me. 

Twelve  hours  later  I  was  at  the  casualty 
clearing  station.  The  M.O.  came  around 
to  the  cot  I  was  in. 

6  Hello !  you  one  of  the  boys  wounded  at 
the  ridge  last  night  ?  9 

6  Yes,  sir,  I  was  there.' 

'  You  must  have  got  an  awful  jar  when 
the  mine  went  up  ?  ' 

t  Oh,  it  wasn't  too  bad,  sir.' 

'  Well,  it  nearly  shook  the  windows  out 
here,  and  this  is  twenty  miles  back. ' 

So  that  was  another  of  the  rumours  come 
true:  there  had  been  a  lot  of  explosives  in 
that  mine.  I  rather  thought  so  myself 
when  I  tumbled  into  the  hole  it  made ! 


IV 
RAID  RECONNAISSANCES 

E  were  all  excited  and  indignant. 
News  had  just  arrived  that  the 
Hun  had  plucked  up  enough  courage  to  raid 
the  battalion  on  our  right  and  had  got  a 
prisoner.  Of  course  he  had  not  had  things  all 
his  own  way.  After  killing  some  and  wound- 
ing the  remainder  of  a  Lewis  gun  team,  he 
had  made  off  with  the  gun,  only  to  be  chased 
across  No  Man's  Land  and  compelled  to  drop 
the  gun  and  run  to  safety.  He  had  got  his 
prisoner  by  his  favourite  trick  of  speaking 
in  English.  A  German  officer  and  two  men 
had  got  into  a  quiet  part  of  the  trench  which 
had  been  evacuated  owing  to  the  severity 
of  the  meinenwerfer  fire  in  that  sector. 
They  had  waylaid  a  sergeant  coming  along 
this  part  and  had  taken  him  off  his  guard 
by  speaking  a  few  words  of  good  English. 
He  realised — too  late — who  they  were,  but 

61 


62  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

in  time  enough  to  fire  his  Verry  light  pistol 
in  the  face  of  one  of  his  would-be  captors, 
thereby  greatly  damaging  the  Hun's  fea- 
tures and  bringing  his  life  to  a  sudden  and 
untimely  end.  (This  German's  body  was 
found  in  the  trench  the  following  morning.) 
The  sergeant  was,  however,  taken  prisoner. 

I  was  corporal  in  charge  of  the  scouts  at 
that  time,  and,  as  the  officer  and  scout  ser- 
geant were  away,  the  C.O.  sent  for  me, 

'  I  have  a  nice  little  job  for  you  to-night, 
corporal,'  he  said  when  I  reported  at  head- 
quarters. '  I  suppose  you  have  heard  what 
happened  last  night. ' 

'  Yes,  sir,'  I  replied. 

'  Well,  just  come  and  look  over  this  latest 
map  of  No  Man's  Land  which  has  arrived 
from  brigade,  and  I  '11  show  you  what  I  want 
your  scouts  to  do  to-night.' 

I  did  so,  and  he  pointed  out  to  me  a  place 
on  the  map  where  a  German  listening  post 
had  been  definitely  located. 

'  Now,  I  want  you  to  find  out  to-night  if 
you  can  get  through  his  wire  and  into  that 
post.  Don't  go  in  yourself;  just  report  to 
me  the  chances  of  getting  in  and  we  '11  ar- 
range details  later  on.  We  want  to  do 
some  little  stunt  in  retaliation  for  what  he 


EAID  EECONNAISSANCES       63 

did  last  night  to  the  battalion  on  our 
right.' 

*  We  '11  do  the  best  we  can,  sir,'  I  replied, 
saluted  and  left  headquarters.  I  went  back 
to  our  dug-out,  and  explained  to  the  rest  of 
the  scouts  what  the  night's  work  was  to  be. 
Everybody  was  whole-heartedly  glad  that 
something  was  to  be  done  in  retaliation  for 
the  temerity  of  the  Hun  on  the  previous 
night. 

About  ten  o'clock  that  night  six  of  us  left 
our  trench,  crawled  through  the  maze  of 
wire  in  front  of  it,  and  made  off  in  the 
direction  of  the  unsuspecting  German  listen- 
ing-post. It  had  been  raining  heavily 
recently  and  the  ground  was  wet  and  muddy. 
It  was  cold  and  very  disagreeable  and 
'  Heinie  '  was  nervous ;  he  kept  the  place 
continually  alight  with  numerous  Verry 
lights.  His  machine-guns  were  active  and 
constantly  swept  across  No  Man's  Land — 
the  bullets  whizzing  over  our  heads  or 
plunking  into  the  ground  near  to  us.  In 
approaching  the  listening-post  we  had  to 
crawl  down  a  slight  dip  in  the  ground  im- 
mediately in  front  of  it.  His  usual  tactics 
in  providing  ample  protection  for  his  out- 
posts was  never  better  exemplified  than  in 


64  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

the  present  instance.  Three  machine  guns 
alternately  swept  the  ground  in  front  of  his 
listening-post,  and  I  can  tell  you  that  we 
had  enough  thrills  in  half  an  hour  then  to 
satisfy  any  one  for  a  lifetime.  It  was  plunk ! 
plunk!  all  the  time.  He  simply  sprinkled 
the  ground  with  machine-gun  bullets.  We 
got  up  to  his  wire,  and  could  distinctly  hear 
the  sentry  in  the  listening-post.  He  was 
in  a  bit  of  a  trench  leading  out  from  the 
front  line,  and  we  could  hear  him  stamping 
his  feet  and  clapping  his  hands  together  to 
keep  himself  warm.  He  was  protected  by 
a  mass  of  wire  at  least  forty  feet  in  depth, 
and  the  prospect  of  ever  getting  near  enough 
to  grab  him  was  very  remote.  We  carefully 
withdrew  and  returned  into  our  own  trench 
and  back  to  headquarters.  I  immediately 
reported  to  the  C.O.  and  gave  him  a  full  ac- 
count of  what  we  had  both  seen  and 
heard. 

4  Well,  that  doesn't  look  very  promising, 
corporal ;  we  '11  have  to  think  out  some- 
thing better  for  to-morrow  night.' 

I  returned  to  the  scouts'  dug-out,  rolled 
into  my  blanket,  and  was  soon  fast  asleep. 
A  few  hours  later  I  was  awakened  by  one  of 
the  scouts. 


\ 


EAID  EECONNAISSANCES       65 

'  Say,  corp,  did  you  hear  the  latest  ?  ' 

'  No,  haven't  heard  anything  for  several 
hours ;  what  is  the  latest  ?  '  I  inquired 
sleepily. 

'  Heinie  grabbed  one  of  our  listening- 
posts  last  night,  and  got  away  with  two  of 
our  men. ' 

I  was  wide  awake  now.  This  was  adding 
insult  to  injury. 

'  How  on  earth  did  he  do  it  ?  '  I  asked. 

6  Made  a  raid  just  before  daybreak.' 

'  What  post  did  he  get?  ' 

'  The  one  nearest  to  the  Double  Grassier.'1 

'  Well,  we  must  go  up  and  find  out  all 
we  can  about  it.  If  I  know  anything, 
*  Heinie  '  has  let  himself  in  for  a  lot  of 
trouble  this  time.' 

But  before  we  were  ready  to  go  a  runner 
came  with  a  message  for  me  to  report  to 
headquarters  at  once.  When  I  arrived 
there  I  found  the  C.O.  in  a  towering 
rage. 

'  The  blighters  put  one  over  on  us  last 
night,  corporal,  and  we  are  going  to  make 
him  pay  for  it.'  He  emphasised  this  with 
a  resounding  whack  on  the  table.  There 

1  Two  slag-heaps  made  famous  by  the  fierce  fighting  for  them 
at  the  battle  of  Loos. 


66  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

was  no  mistaking  Ms  feelings  about  the 
matter. 

'  This  time  we  are  going  to  organise 
something  big.  The  Hun  has  got  to  be 
taught  a  lesson  for  this.  I  '11  have  plenty 
of  work  for  you  and  your  scouts  to  do  to- 
night. In  the  meantime  you  had  better  go 
up  to  the  front  line  and  get  all  the  particu- 
lars you  can,  and  report  to  me  as  soon  as  you 
get  back.' 

I  replied  that  I  was  just  about  to  go  up 
to  the  front  line  for  this  purpose  when  he 
had  sent  for  me.  I  then  left  headquarters 
and  soon  afterwards,  in  the  company  of 
another  scout,  I  went  up  to  the  front  line 
to  find  out  all  that  I  could  about  the  raid. 
We  had  posts  on  the  Double  Grassier — so 
had  the  Hun,  his  nearest  being  about  thirty 
yards  from  ours.  Prom  our  posts  we  had 
a  splendid  view  of  No  Man's  Land  and  of 
his  trenches.  It  appeared  that  in  the  dim 
light  of  dawn  there  had  been  a  sharp  and 
heavy  bombardment  which  had  isolated  the 
listening-post;  then  a  party  of  what  was 
roughly  estimated  to  be  about  thirty  Huns 
had  rushed  it.  There  had  been  a  sharp 
skirmish,  a  few  rifle  shots,  and  the  Huns 
then  disappeared.  By  the  time  assistance 


KAID  BECONNAISSANCES       67 

had  been  sent  to  the  listening-post,  the 
raiders  had  gone.  One  of  the  sentry  group 
had  been  killed,  one  wounded  and  two  (one 
of  them  wounded)  had  been  taken  prisoners. 
From  the  Grassier  we  could  see  tapes 
stretching  from  the  German  trench  to  within 
a  few  yards  of  the  listening-post.  Probably 
one  or  two  men  had  laid  the  tapes  an  hour 
or  two  previous  to  the  raid,  and  the  raiding 
party  had  crawled  along  them,  concealing 
themselves  in  shell  holes  several  minutes 
before  the  bombardment  started.  If,  in 
our  patrol  of  the  previous  night,  we  had 
gone  about  a  hundred  yards  further  north 
we  should  have  probably  met  these  tape- 
layers.  We  felt  like  kicking  ourselves  when 
we  thought  of  it.  Soon  after  we  had  re- 
turned to  headquarters  the  C.O.  sent  for 
me.  He  had  been  to  brigade,  and  there 
a  definite  and  quite  ambitious  plan  for  a 
raid  had  been  evolved.  A  party  from  the 
battalion  on  our  right,  who  had  lost  the 
sergeant,  and  a  party  from  our  battalion, 
were  going  to  raid  the  German  trenches. 
The  artillery  had  already  received  orders  to 
cut  the  wire  on  a  fairly  large  frontage. 

*  Your  work,'  said  the  C.O.  to  me,  '  will 
be  to  go  out  each  night  and  examine  the 


68  SCOUTING  THKILLS 

enemy  wire  for  gaps,  reporting  on  what  has 
been  accomplished  by  the  artillery  in  their 
wire-cutting  operations.  The  artillery  have 
already  started  this  afternoon,  and  before 
taking  your  patrol  out  to-night  you  will 
report  to  me  and  I  will  show  you  on  the 
map  where  I  want  you  to  go.' 

I  went  back  to  my  dug-out,  had  a  bit  of 
supper,  and  waited  for  the  mail  to  arrive. 
After  the  excitement  of  receiving  letters  had 
died  down,  six  of  us  got  ready  for  our  patrol. 
I  reported  at  headquarters,  received  my  in- 
structions, and,  as  the  trenches  were  knee- 
deep  in  mud,  we  went  overland  to  the  front 
line.  After  warning  the  sentries  that  a 
patrol  was  going  out,  we  climbed  out  of  our 
trench  and  over  the  exceedingly  thick  wire 
in  front  of  it  and  out  into  No  Man's  Land. 
As  was  our  custom,  we  lay  quiet  for  several 
minutes  listening.  Except  for  an  occasional 
shell  whistling  overhead,  everything  was 
perfectly  quiet.  The  wire  we  had  to  ex- 
amine was  about  three  hundred  yards  from 
our  trench,  so  we  pushed  on  fairly  rapidly, 
for  we  knew  what  a  slow  and  difficult  job 
it  was  to  crawl  around  amongst  the  enemy 
wire.  We  were  making  good  progress,  and 
had  reached  to  within  about  thirty  yards  of 


EAID  EBCONNAISSANCES       69 

the  German  wire  when  some  one  caught  his 
foot  in  some  old  wire.  The  sound  was  un- 
mistakable— so  also  was  the  Huns'  reply  to 
it.  Cutting  wire  invariably  means  one  thing 
— a  raid,  and  the  German,  if  never  very 
brave,  was  always  exceedingly  wise.  The 
volley  of  bombs  that  fell  into  the  wire  on 
our  left  told  us  that  our  coming  was  neither 
unexpected  nor  unprepared  for.  Immedi- 
ately his  S.O.S.  lights  went  up — beautifully 
coloured,  significant  lights.  His  artillery 
replied  with  amazing  and  disconcerting 
promptitude,  and  soon  we  were  in  the 
midst  of  screaming,  bursting  shells.1  We 
began  to  withdraw  out  of  range  of  the  Boche 
artillery  fire,  when  the  battalion  on  our 
right,  apparently  thinking  that  the  Boche 
had  serious  intentions  of  attempting  to  re- 
peat his  former  successes,  sent  up  a  call  for 
our  artillery,  and  our  artillery  were  no 
slackers.  They  promptly  came  down  with 
a  bang.  Imagine  how  happy  we  were! 
Shells  in  front  of  us,  shells  behind  us,  shells 
all  around  us !  A  screaming,  deafening  din 
and  noise!  We  crawled  into  a  shell-hole 

1 A  protective  barrage,  such  as  the  S.  0.  S.  signal  calls  for,  was 
usually  laid  down  about  one  hundred  yards^in  front  of  the  first- 
line  trench. 


70  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

and  waited.  We  splendidly  illustrated 
Bairnsfather's  picture:  *  If  you  can  find 
a  better  'ole,  go  to  it!  '  The  sky  was  a 
blaze  of  light;  S.O.S.'s  were  going  up  along 
the  whole  front.  We  could  see  them  spread- 
ing to  the  right  as  far  as  Vimy,  and  to  the 
left  as  far  as  Loos.  On  the  whole  length  of 
this  front  both  our  own  and  the  Boche 
artillery  blazed  away,  and  all  because 
a  scout  had  caught  his  foot  in  some 
wire! 

In  the  meantime  our  own  position  was 
most  unenviable — it  was  useless  to  move, 
and  all  we  could  do  was  to  crouch  in  a  shell- 
hole.  Ten  times  in  a  minute  we  ducked; 
figuratively  speaking  we  died  several  hun- 
dred deaths  that  night,  for  each  screaming 
shell  passing  so  closely  overhead  had  the 
menace  of  death  in  it.  After  half  an  hour's 
deafening  din  things  began  to  quieten  down 
and  we  began  to  breathe  more  freely.  At 
last  there  was  perfect  stillness.  Not  one  of 
us  hit !  It  was  useless  to  continue  our 
reconnaissance  for  an  hour  or  two,  so  we 
returned  to  our  own  trench.  Everybody 
was  amazed  to  see  us  all  returning  with  a 
whole  skin.  They  had  heard  the  bombing 
and,  of  course,  the  subsequent  artillery  fire, 


EAID   BECONNAISANCES        71 

with  scores  of  shells  exploding  in  No  Man's 
Land. 

After  resting  for  a  while  we  started  out 
again,  moving  cautiously  and  quietly  until 
we  got  up  to  the  German  wire.  We  moved 
along  the  outside  of  it,  frequently  stopping 
and  waiting  for  a  flare  light  to  give  us  an 
opportunity  for  a  good  look  at  the  wire.  It 
was  damaged,  but  there  were  no  gaps.  It 
was  almost  daylight  when  we  got  back  into 
our  own  trench,  and  quite  daylight  by  the 
time  we  got  to  headquarters.  I  reported 
at  once  to  the  C.O.,  told  him  of  the  diffi- 
culties we  had  had^  and  the  information  we 
had  eventually  secured. 

*  We  '11  try  to  get  more  artillery  on  to  that 
wire  to-day,  my  boy ;  you  '11  find  some  gaps 
in  it  to-night,  I  hope.  I  want  a  writ- 
ten report  of  your  patrol  at  once,  I 
want  to  send  a  copy  of  it  to  brigade — it 
will  induce  them  to  get  more  artillery  on 
to  that  wire. ' 

I  went  back  to  my  dug-out,  wrote  the 
report,  handed  it  in  to  headquarters,  and 
then  had  some  breakfast,  followed  by  three 
to  four  hours'  sleep.  In  the  afternoon  we 
went  up  to  our  best  O.P.,  and  from  there 
watched  the  artillery  and  trench-mortar 


72  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

shells  bursting  in  the  German  wire.  They 
were  ripping  it  up  beautifully,  gaily  blowing 
it  sky-high  in  places. 

The  orders  for  the  patrol  were  the  same 
as  the  previous  night.  The  artillery  had 
concentrated  on  one  gap,  the  location  of 
which  the  C.O.  gave  me.  We  were  going 
to  see  if  there  was  a  clean  road  through. 
We  worked  slowly  and  cautiously,  reached 
the  Boche  wire,  saw  a  good  clean  gap 
several  yards  wide,  crawled  up  through  it 
and  back  out  again.  The  patrol  was  a 
laborious  and  satisfying  one:  it  lasted  for 
several  hours.  I  reported  back  to  the  C.O. 

'  There  is  a  good  clean  gap  for  the  party 
on  the  right,  sir. ' 

'  Good,  we  '11  have  the  other  one  attended 
to  to-day.' 

We  were  dog-tired.  We  had  crawled  for 
hours  over  wet,  muddy  ground,  and  it  was 
a  cold  night.  The  next  afternoon  we  again 
watched  the  shells  dropping  into  the  German 
wire,  and  at  night  went  out  to  examine  the 
gap  for  the  left  party.  We  again  worked 
slowly  and  with  the  most  extreme  caution. 
The  wire  here  had  been  a  good  deal  thicker 
and  heavier,  and  while  a  gap  had  been  made 
there  were  several  fairly  large  bundles  of 


RAID  EECONNAISSANCES       73 

wire  lying  around,  blown  clean  out  of  the 
ground.  It  was  awfully  difficult  to  work 
up  through  the  gap,  the  bundles  of  wire  in 
front  of  us  that  were  obstacles  to  our  prog- 
ress, having  to  be  carefully  moved  over  to 
one  side.  I  had  almost  got  through  the  gap, 
but  a  big  roll  of  loose  wire  lay  in  front  of 
me.  Slowly  and  patiently  I  pushed  it  to 
one  side,  and  was  passing  it  when  my  foot 
caught  it,  making  a  very  slight  noise.  Not 
more  than  twelve  feet  away  I  could  see, 
quite  distinctly,  the  parapet  of  the  German 
trench.  I  moved  forward  a  few  feet  into 
the  protection  of  a  shell-hole,  and  waited. 
Had  I  been  heard  ?  I  did  not  wait  long  in 
suspense.  I  heard  sounds  of  movement 
in  the  trench  in  front  of  me,  and  soon  after- 
wards the  head  and  shoulders  of  a  German 
appeared.  He  paused  a  moment  to  listen. 
He  had  in  his  hand  what  appeared  to  me 
to  be  a  pistol.  He  raised  it  carefully  and 
fired!  There  was  a  blinding  flash — a  loud 
report — it  was  a  flare  light!  As  it  broke 
into  a  bright  white  light,  I  felt  as  though 
a  hundred  searchlights  were  being  concen- 
trated upon  me.  I  had  ample  time  to  study 
the  typical  German  face  of  the  flare- 
pistol  man.  It  was  smooth,  fat  and  round, 


74  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

the  roundness  being  emphasised  by  the 
small  peakless  cloth  cap  he  was  wearing. 
He  would  be  a  man  close  upon  forty  years 
of  age.  He  looked  apprehensively  around. 
I  felt  an  almost  irrepressible  desire  to  say 
Boo!  I  am  sure  he  would  have  fainted! 
The  light  slowly  flickered  out  and  he  dis- 
appeared into  the  trench.  I  backed  out 
through  the  gap,  and  when  clear  of  the 
German  wire,  we  got  up  and  walked  back 
across  No  Man's  Land  into  our  own  trench. 
Another  tedious  patrol  of  several  hours  was 
finished.  We  were  cold  and  shivering  when 
we  dropped  into  our  own  trench.  When 
we  got  back  to  headquarters  I  wrote  my 
report  and  sent  it  in  to  the  C.O.  A  few 
hours  later  he  sent  for  me. 

'  You  are  quite  sure  those  gaps  are  there, 
corporal,  and  that  the  parties  will  have  no 
trouble  getting  through  them?  9 

1  Quite  sure,  sir,  we  have  been  through 
both  of  them.' 

*  Very  good,  then.  Now  the  zero  hour 
for  this  raid  is  two  o'clock  to-morrow 
morning.  I  have  a  lot  of  work  for  your 
scouts  which  must  be  done  to-night.  You 
will  report  here  at  six  o'clock,  and  you  will 
be  supplied  with  wire-cutters — to  cut  gaps 


EAID  KECONNAISSANCES       75 

through  our  own  wire — and  with  rolls  of 
white  tape  which  you  will  take  out  to  the 
assembly  positions  before  the  parties  go  out. 
It  will  act  as  a  guide  to  them.  Then  at  the 
zero  hour  two  scouts  with  each  party  will 
go  forward  with  the  tapes  as  far  as  the 
German  trench,  being  closely  followed  by  the 
raiding  party.  However,  you  will  get  fuller 
written  instructions  later  on.' 

When  I  left  headquarters,  I  called  at  the 
dressing  station  to  see  if  I  could  get  some- 
thing from  the  medical  officer  to  take  away 
the  wretched  dizzy  feeling  I  was  suffering 
from.  A  medical  orderly  took  my  tempera- 
ture and  found  it  to  be  102°.  The  M.O.  gave 
me  some  tablets,  and  I  was  hoping  I 
would  be  feeling  a  little  fitter  for  the 
night's  work.  At  night  we  got  our  wire- 
cutters  and  cut  the  necessary  '  lanes  '  in 
the  wire,  cutting  them  in  zig-zag  fashion. 
We  also  went  out  on  a  quick  patrol  to  see  if 
the  Germans  were  working  to  repair  the 
damage  done  to  the  wire.  We  found  every- 
thing quiet.  I  was  feeling  wretchedly  ill 
and  feverish  when  I  reported  back  to  head- 
quarters. I  stood  waiting  while  the  second- 
in-command  (and  C.O.  of  the  raid)  read 
over  to  me  the  operation  order  for  the  raid, 


76  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

before  giving  me  a  copy  for  the  information 
of  the  scouts.  The  heat  added  the  final 
touch  to  my  physical  exhaustion.  Just  as 
I  reached  out  to  take  my  copy  of  the  opera- 
tion order,  I  felt  myself  reeling,  everything 
became  a  blank,  and  when  I  woke  up  again, 
I  was  lying  on  the  floor  with  several  people 
solicitously  attending  to  me.  To  my  bitter 
disappointment  the  C.O.  forbade  my  taking 
any  further  part  in  the  operations.  I  was 
taken  to  the  dressing-station,  wrapped  up 
in  a  blanket,  and  told  to  go  to  sleep.  About 
3.30  the  following  morning  one  of  the  boys 
woke  me  up  to  tell  me  of  the  success  of  the 
raid. 

A  thick  mist  had  come  up  about  midnight 
which  had  proved  of  great  advantage  to  the 
raiding  parties.  They  had  been  able  to 
assemble  without  having  been  seen  or 
heard.  Our  artillery  barrage  had  been 
perfect.  The  scouts  had  gone  forward  with 
the  tapes,  followed  by  the  raiders,  who  had 
got  into  the  enemy  trench  without  meeting 
with  much  opposition.  The  speed  of  the 
raiders  had  completely  taken  the  Boche  by 
surprise.  They  were  in  and  out  of  his 
trench  in  five  minutes,  and  brought  back 
twelve  husky  prisoners.  The  mist  had  pre- 


EAID  RECONNAISSANCES       77 

vented  the  German  artillery  observers  from 
seeing  the  S.O.S.  lights  sent  up,  and  the 
raid  was  over  and  every  one  back  in  our 
trenches  before  a  shell  came  over. 

We  were  all  delighted  with  the  results. 
The  scouts  received  special  mention  in 
orders  for  the  work  they  did,  and  we  went 
back  to  the  rest  billets  with  the  satisfied 
feeling  that  the  Hun  had  been  taught  his 
lesson. 


PULLING  THE  STRING 

HP  HIS  story  is  written  chiefly  to  show 
-*•  the  humour  that  was  frequently  in- 
troduced into  the  game  of  making  war.  It 
made  the  life  not  only  bearable  but  hugely 
enjoyable.  Many  a  joke  was  practised  on 
the  Hun  to  test  his  sense  of  humour,  in 
which,  by  the  way,  he  was  found  wanting. 
One  could  never  picture  him  with  the  cheer- 
ful, spontaneous  grin  of  the  Tommy — he 
was  either  servile  or  surly.  It  was  this 
well-known  lack  of  a  sense  of  humour  that 
made  a  joke  practised  upon  him  all  the  more 
enjoyable — his  discomfiture  was  guaranteed 
beforehand. 

Though  this  incident  was  actually  the 
work  of  the  scouts,  it  is  not  a  scouting 
episode.  It  emphasises  the  co-operation 
between  the  scouts  and  observers.  The 
observer  collected  his  information  in  the 

78 


PULLING  THE   STRING         79 

daylight,  while  the  scout  collected  his  in- 
formation in  the  dark.  Frequently,  the 
scout  was  sent  out  to  confirm  the  report 
of  the  observer,  and  often  our  patrols  were 
decided  upon  after  the  observers  had  handed 
in  their  reports. 

They  enjoyed,  from  their  specially  sited 
and  constructed  O.P.'s,  unique  opportuni- 
ties for  studying  the  movements  and  habits 
of  the  Boche.  Wonderful  and  ingenious  sub- 
terfuges were  employed  to  spy  out  the 
movements  of  the  ever-active  Hun,  the 
most  popular  of  which  was  the  dummy  tree. 
A  tree,  standing  so  that,  from  its  branches 
(if  it  was  lucky  enough  to  have  any),  one 
commanded  an  extensive  view  of  the  enemy 
lines,  would  be  carefully  sketched  in  its 
every  detail.  A  few  days  later  an  exact 
replica  of  it  would  arrive.  At  night  the 
real  tree  would  be  dug  out  and  the  dummy, 
having  inside  of  its  innocent  looking  bark 
a  steel  frame,  supporting  a  seat  for  an 
observer  and  a  ladder  leading  up  to  it, 
would  take  its  place. 

The  Hun  never  guessed  what  a  faithful 
history  of  his  every  movement  was  being 
daily  sent  up  to  our  Intelligence  Staff. 
Ruined  buildings  were  a  godsend  to  the 


80  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

energetic  observer.  Prom  these  places  the 
comings  in  and  goings  out  of  the  Hun  were 
daily  taken  note  of,  to  his  eventual  discom- 
fort and  sorrow.  A  road  was  known  to  be 
in  frequent  and  continual  use,  and  a  re- 
port would  come  in  : 

'  Much  individual  movement  along  the 
Lens-Douai  Road. ' 

This  information  would  finally  reach 
artillery  headquarters,  and  harassing  fire 
(a  few  rounds  every  fifteen  minutes  or  so) 
would  be  directed  on  that  road  at  night— 
for  a  road  used  by  a  few  men  during  the 
day  would  be  used  by  scores  of  men  at 
night.  Carrying  parties,  ration  parties, 
transport,  reliefs  coming  in  and  going 
out,  all  would  find  this  attention  both  demor- 
alising and  destructive. 

Then  again, 

'  An  overland  route  is  in  use  from  Pots- 
dam Trench  to  Hohenzollern  Redoubt.' 

The  machine  gunners  would  have  this 
information  turned  over  to  them,  and  would 
fire  bursts  at  intervals — disconcerting  to  the 
night-travelling  Hun. 

The  camouflaged  O.P.  was  always  a 
powerful  factor  in  the  successful  waging  of 
war.  To  see  your  enemy  is  one  of  the  most 


PULLING  THE   STRING         81 

interesting  and  thrilling  of  all  war  experi- 
ences. To  be  able  to  sit  and  calmly  watch 
his  movements  was  always  an  enjoyable 
way  of  spending  a  few  hours. 

The  incident  of  this  story  happened  in  the 
winter  time  when  the  snow — deep,  crisp, 
and  hard — lay  on  the  ground.  At  such 
times  patrolling  was  next  to  impossible, 
especially  when,  as  in  the  present  instance, 
the  nights  were  brilliantly  moonlight. 
Occasionally  white  crawling  suits  would  be 
used  to  tone  with  the  surrounding  white- 
ness. There  is  at  least  one  instance  where 
an  enterprising  battalion  clothed  its  raiding 
party  in  white  and  completely  surprised  the 
Boche.  But  patrolling,  unless  for  very 
special  reasons,  was  very  seldom  done  on 
a  moonlight  night  with  the  snow  on  the 
ground. 

Two  nights  before  the  incident  of  this 
story  we  had  had  a  rather  exciting  time. 
An  artillery  officer,  anxious  to  have  a  piece 
of  Boche  wire  for  a  souvenir,  had  appealed 
to  Tommy,  and  Tommy  had  arranged  to 
take  him  out  to  get  it.  In  all,  four  of  us 
went  out.  It  was  bitterly  cold,  and  the 
snow  glistened  in  the  brilliancy  of  the 
moonlight.  The  Boche  wire  was  nearly 


82  SCOUTING  THEILLS 

two  hundred  and  fifty  yards  away.  We 
walked  for  some  considerable  distance  and 
then  approached  the  wire  more  cautiously. 
Tommy  whispered  to  me : 

'  Stay  here  while  the  artillery  officer  and 
myself  go  forward.' 

So  two  of  us  remained  behind,  waiting. 
Several  minutes  passed.  I  got  impatient 
and  announced  my  intention  to  go  in  search 
of  Tommy.  I  crawled  forward  and  came 
up  to  them  lying  close  to  the  German  wire. 
The  artillery  officer  had  had  his  wish 
realised,  for  he  had  broken  off  a  piece  of 
Hun  wire.  I  crawled  up  to  where  Tommy 
was  lying.  He  touched  my  arm. 

'  Do  you  see  the  Boche  listening-post,  just 
inside  of  that  wire  ?  ' 

I  looked  in  the  direction  indicated,  and 
there  was  the  Boche — thirty  yards  away — 
his  steel  helmet  glistening  in  the  moonlight. 
He  was  moving  his  head  from  side  to  side, 
I  could  also  hear  him  alternately  stamping 
his  right  and  then  his  left  foot  as  he  en- 
deavored to  keep  warm.  Tommy  touched 
my  arm  again. 

'  Do  you  see  that  bent  iron  stake  ?  I  'm 
going  to  break  that  off  and  take  it  back 
with  me.' 


PULLING  THE   STRING         83 

4  Why?  'I  asked. 

'  Oh,  only  for  the  fun  of  the  thing. ' 

He  crawled  over  to  it,  grasped  hold  of  it 
and  tried  to  break  it  off.  He  didn't  succeed, 
so  stood  up  to  do  it.  He  bent  his  whole 
weight  to  it  but  it  still  resisted.  He  be- 
came still  more  energetic  and  wrestled  with 
the  thing.  I  became  alarmed.  The  Hun 
sentry  had  heard,  the  movement  of  his 
head  had  stopped.  Tommy  made  a  final 
desperate  effort,  lost  his  balance,  swung 
round,  and  went  crashing  into  the  Hun 
wire!  Away  went  the  Hun  sentry  patter- 
ing down  the  duck-boards  in  a  mighty 
haste  to  give  the  alarm.  Tommy  quickly 
disentangled  himself. 

*  Quick,'  he  said, '  run  for  it  before  he  can 
give  the  alarm.' 

I  got  up  and  ran,  and  had  only  gone  a  few 
yards  when  I  went  crashing  into  some 
loose  wire,  getting  myself  hopelessly  en- 
tangled. Tommy  and  the  artillery  officer 
were  speeding  away  ahead  of  me.  I 
obtained  my  release  at  the  expense  of  a 
perfectly  good  pair  of  slacks,  and  went 
racing  after  them.  I  had  almost  reached 
them  when  they  both  went  crashing  down 
in  front  of  me.  I  had  no  time  to  pull  up, 


84  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

so  piled  in  on  top  of  them.  We  were  all 
quickly  on  our  feet,  and  a  few  yards  further 
on  the  black  mass  of  our  wire  showed  up. 
It  was  thick  and  heavy ;  '  over  the  top  ' 
was  the  best  way  to  negotiate  this,  so 
giving  a  whoop  we  made  a  spring  at  it. 
Some  got  over  and  some  didn't;  I  didn't! 
I  landed  on  top  of  it!  More  ripping  of 
good  clothes  and  then  I  tumbled  into  our 
trench.  It  was  a  most  amusing  time,  and 
we  were  all  laughing  heartily  when  the  Hun, 
now  thoroughly  alarmed,  opened  up  with 
three  machine  guns — sweeping  across  No 
Man's  Land. 

The  next  day  the  observers  handed  in  a 
report : 

'  A  beaten  path  observed  across  the  snow 
leading  from  the  German  support  line  to 
the  Double  Grassier. '  That  was  the  advan- 
tage of  a  snowfall;  it  yielded  information 
of  the  enemy  routes.  (He,  of  course,  got 
the  same  information  about  us.)  Aeroplane 
photographs,  taken  while  the  snow  was  on 
the  ground,  yielded  a  mass  of  information. 

We  pondered  over  the  observers'  report, 
and  decided,  instead  of  a  patrol,  to  go  up 
and  find  out  if  anything  was  to  be  seen  from 
the  Double  Crassier.  The  Double  Crassier 


PULLING  THE  STRING  85 

was  a  twin  slag-heap,  part  of  which,  at 
that  time,  was  held  by  us  and  part  by  the 
Boche.  It  provided  excellent  observation, 
and  for  that  reason  was  usually  a  most 
unhealthy  spot.  Twenty-five  yards  from 
our  most  forward  post  was  a  Boche  bomb- 
ing-post ;  it  was  an  occasional  early  morn- 
ing form  of  recreation  for  these  bombing- 
posts  to  exchange  bombs.  The  Boche  had  a 
very  ingenious  device  for  protecting  his 
bombing-post.  Over  the  top  of  it  he  had 
spread  ordinary  chicken  wire  so  that  bombs, 
dropping  on  top  of  this,  bounced  off  and 
rolled  to  one  side  before  exploding.  He  had 
one  small  opening  through  which  he  could 
throw  his  bombs,  but  too  small  for  even 
an  expert  thrower,  at  that  distance,  and 
under  these  conditions,  to  even  hope  to 
drop  a  bomb  through.  A  small  trench, 
dug  into  the  side  of  the  Grassier,  led  up 
to  this  post.  At  the  bottom  of  the  Grassier 
he  had  another  post,  a  night  post.  The 
one  on  the  Grassier  was  both  a  day  and 
night  post. 

Shortly  after  the  Vimy  Eidge  attack, 
when  our  line  was  carried  forward  several 
thousand  yards,  I  got  an  opportunity  to 
examine  this  Grassier  post  of  his.  Deep 


86  SCOUTING  THEILLS 

down  into  the  slag-heap  he  had  dug  a 
tunnel,  fairly  commodious,  so  that  his 
men  could  comfortably  man  the  post  and 
have  good  protection  in  case  of  a  heavy 
bombardment. 

We  arrived  at  the  Grassier  shortly  before 
eight  o'clock  that  night — it  was  brilliantly 
moonlight.  We  spoke  to  the  sentry  on  duty 
in  our  bombing-post. 

6  Have  you  seen  any  Huns  moving  about 
down  there?  '  indicating  the  Boche  lines  at 
the  bottom  of  the  Grassier. 

6  Yes,'  he  answered  eagerly,  '  we  noticed 
them  last  night  for  the  first  time.  About 
every  two  hours  seven  of  them  (we  counted 
them)  came  overland  from  a  trench;  three 
of  them  got  down  into  the  trench  at  the 
bottom  of  the  Grassier,  while  four  of  them 
went  on  towards  the  Grassier.  We  lost 
sight  of  them,  but  soon  afterwards  saw  four 
Huns  coming  away  from  there;  they 
were  then  joined  by  three  Huns  who 
climbed  out  of  the  trench  and  the  seven  of 
them,  in  single  file,  went  back  to  the  support 
trench. ' 

'  Well,'  said  Jack,  '  this  certainly  sounds 
interesting ;  we  '11  stick  around  and  see 
if  the  same  thing  happens  to-night. ' 


PULLING  THE   STRING  87 

We  waited  for  a  few  minutes,  and  then 
Jack  whispered  excitedly: 

6  Here  they  are,  Mac,  you  can  see  them 
easily.  They  are  coming  towards  the 
Grassier.' 

I  looked,  and  had  no  difficulty  in  seeing 
them.  They  came  unconcernedly  on  until 
they  reached  their  front  line.  The  first 
three  dropped  into  the  trench,  while  the 
remainder  went  on — disappearing  into  the 
trench  that  led  up  to  the  Grassier  post. 
A  few  minutes  later  four  of  them  appeared 
coming  from  the  Grassier;  they  were  joined 
by  three  from  the  trench,  and  the  seven  con- 
tinued their  journey  back  to  the  support 
line.  It  was  all  exactly  as  the  sentry 
described  it. 

*  What  time  is  it,  Mac  ?  '  asked  Jack. 

'  Nearly  ten  minutes  past  eight/  I  re- 
plied. 

'  Well,  we  '11  wait  here  for  a  couple  of 
hours  or  so  to  see  if  the  same  thing  happens 
again.  There  's  no  doubt  about  what  it 
is ;  it  is  the  relief  for  his  two  outposts.  I  '11 
bet  anything  this  kind  of  thing  is  going  on 
all  night.' 

6  No  doubt  about  it,'  I  agreed. 

'  If  we  could  only  get  some  machine  guns 


88  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

on  to  him  we  couldn't  half  give  him  a 
lively  time, '  said  Jack. 

i  Yes,  but  I  don't  suppose  we  could  use 
any  of  the  guns  around  here. ' 

'  No/  said  Jack,  '  they  don't  want  to  fire 
except  in  the  case  of  a  raid  or  an  attack.  If 
he  spots  their  emplacements  he  '11  drop 
'  Minnies  '  into  them.  But  I  '11  see  Tommy 
and  we  '11  try  to  work  out  some  scheme  for 
giving  these  blighters  a  warm  time. ' 

The  Hun  very  thoughtfully  enlivened 
our  period  of  waiting  by  planting  three 
'  Minnies  '  so  close  to  us  that  we  almost 
got  underneath  them.  When  the  excite- 
ment and  noise  had  died  down  Jack  turned 
to  me: 

'  What  's  the  time  now,  Mac  ?  '  he  asked. 

i  Ten  minutes  to  ten. ' 

'  They  '11  be  bringing  along  another  relief 
soon.' 

Promptly  at  ten  (for  the  Hun  loved  to  be 
methodical)  seven  men  reappeared,  coming 
overland  towards  the  Grassier.  The  same 
proceeding  followed  as  took  place  two  hours 
earlier. 

Jack  turned  to  the  sentry. 

'  Will  you  tell  whoever  relieves  you  to 
watch  out  for  these  reliefs  so  that  we  can 


PULLING  THE   STBING         89 

find  out  if  this  kind  of  thing  goes  on  all 
night?  ' 

The  sentry  promised  to  do  so,  so  we  went 
back  to  headquarters. 

6  If  we  can  fix  up  something,  Mac,'  said 
Jack  as  we  were  returning,  '  we  can  give 
them  a  warm  time  to-morrow  night.7 

Tommy,  upon  learning  from  Jack  the 
details  of  the  Hun  activity,  waxed  enthusi- 
astic over  the  possibilities  of  giving  the  Hun 
'  a  warm  time.' 

A  scheme  was  outlined,  and  Jack  gave 
me  the  details  of  it  in  the  early  hours  of  the 
morning. 

'  Well,  Mac,'  he  said,  '  if  this  little  game 
works,  we  are  going  to  see  some  fun. 
Tommy  is  going  to  arrange  for  the  assist- 
ance of  the  brigade  machine  gunners,  who 
have  gun  emplacements  in  that  slag-heap 
about  five  hundred  yards  behind  our  front 
line.  We  are  going  to  fix  up  a  signalling 
lamp  near  the  foot  of  the  Grassier.  This 
lamp  will  be  sited  so  as  to  face  the  machine 
gunners.  A  signaller  will  be  on  duty  at 
the  lamp,  and  he  will  have  a  scout  with  him 
who  will  have  one  end  of  a  long  piece  of  sig- 
nalling wire  in  his  hand.  The  other  end 
will  be  in  the  bombing-post  on  the 


90  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

Grassier,  and  we  will  have  that.  One  pull 
on  the  wire  is  the  signal  to  the  man  at  the 
lamp  to  flash  his  lamp  once.  This  is  the 
signal  to  the  machine  gunners  to  open  up 
(they  know  where  to  fire)  with  their  guns. 
Two  pulls  (two  flashes)  is  the  signal  to 
elevate  (we  shall  be  able  to  see  how  they 
are  shooting)  ;  three  pulls — the  signal  to 
depress;  four  pulls — "  cease  fire."  What 
do  you  think  about  it  ?  ' 

'  Sounds  good  to  me — if  only  the  machine 
gunners  don't  shoot  all  over  the  place.' 

6  Oh,  I  don't  think  that  will  happen.  The 
machine-gun  officer  is  coming  along  to-day 
and  they  will  work  the  thing  out  exactly ;  in 
any  case,  we  should,  by  our  signals,  soon  get 
them  on  to  the  target.' 

*  I  don't  suppose  the  Hun  will  stop 
coming  after  his  first  fright  ?  '  I  queried. 

'  I  guess  not ;  he  's  likely  been  using  that 
route  for  ages.  He  '11  stick  to  it  for  a  little 
while  anyway. ' 

We  had  a  busy  time  the  next  day  getting 
our  apparatus  in  working  order.  We  found 
that  we  should  have  to  relay  our  signals 
back  to  avoid  any  possibility  of  the  wire 
getting  caught  and  failing  to  act.  No  time 
must  be  lost  if  we  wanted  our  scheme  to 


PULLING  THE  STKING          91 

be  a  success,  for  our  target  was  only  visible 
for  two  or  three  minutes.  So,  half-way 
down  from  the  bombing-post  to  the  lamp 
we  decided  to  place  Sharkum.  He  would 
get  our  signal  and  pass  it  on  to  the  scout 
on  duty  with  the  signaller.  When  we  had 
our  apparatus  set  up  we  tested  it  and  found 
it  worked  smoothly,  the  machine  gunners 
being  easily  able,  even  in  the  daylight,  to 
see  the  flash  of  the  Lucas  lamp. 

At  7.30  that  night,  Jack,  Louis,  and  my- 
self were  standing  in  our  bombing-post 
impatiently  waiting  for  eight  o'clock  to 
arrive.  Jack  and  I  were  to  watch,  and 
Louis  was  to  do  the  signalling.  Eight 
o'clock  found  Jack  and  myself  straining  our 
eyes  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  Huns. 

6  Here  they  come,  Mac,'  whispered  Jack. 

6  One  pull,  Louis,'  I  whispered  back. 
Louis  put  his  back  into  it — I'm  sure  he  must 
have  pulled  Sharkum  off  his  feet!  The 
Huns  came  sauntering  forward,  while 
we  fairly  danced  with  excitement  and  glee. 
Had  the  gunners  got  the  signal?  When 
would  they  fire?  It  seemed  ages,  though 
in  reality  it  was  only  a  few  seconds,  be- 
fore we  heard  the  rattle  of  the  machine 
gun. 


92  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

Down  went  the  Huns!  Had  we  got 
them  all?  .Surely  not!  The  machine  gun 
finished  its  burst.  A  pause,  and  up  jumped 
seven  lively  Huns ! 

6  Too  high,'  whispered  Jack  in  disgust. 

6  Three  pulls,  Louis,'  I  whispered  back. 
On  came  the  Huns  in  a  most  unseemly 
haste  that  gave  us  the  greatest  enjoyment. 
They  were  going  to  reach  the  trench! 
Tthey  just  finished  a  wild  successful  rush 
towards  it  when  the  machine  gun  rattled 
out  again.  The  disappointment  of  it! 
Ten  seconds  sooner  and  we  would  have 
got  some  of  them.  Jack  growled  out  his 
disgust. 

6  Pour  pulls,  Louis, '  I  murmured.  '  Cheer 
up,  Jack,'  I  said,  '  the  night  is  young  and 
the  fun  is  only  beginning.' 

Five  minutes  passed  and  the  Hun,  on  the 
return  trip,  reappeared. 

'  One  pull,  Louis !  '  I  almost  shouted. 

The  reply  was  prompt;  the  machine  gun 
rattled  out  and  claimed  the  last  Hun  as  a 
victim.  He  fell,  then  got  up  and  limped 
back  into  the  trench.  The  six  ahead  con- 
tinued their  wild  stampede.  Then  the  Hun 
became  vicious  and  ugly  and  began  to 
bounce  the  t  Minnies  '  around  us,  but  we 


PULLING   THE  STRING         93 

stuck  it  out  for  the  next  reappearance  of  the 
relief. 

'  There  's  one  way  they  could  fool  us, 
Mac,'  said  Jack,  *  if  only  they  had  wits 
enough.' 

*  How's  that?' 

'  If  they  came  over  singly,  at  intervals.' 

'  Yes,  they  could  do  that,  but  even  then 
we  could  give  them  a  few  thrills.  What 
they  are  likely  to  do  is  to  use  the  trench.' 

But  promptly  at  ten  o'clock  they  re- 
appeared, and  even  more  promptly  and 
vigorously  Louis  gave  a  pull  on  the  wire; 
the  result  proved  most  disconcerting  to 
the  Huns — they  scattered  and  dropped  into 
shell-holes. 

'  Don't  alter  the  elevation,  Jack,'  I 
whispered,  *  let  them  keep  on  firing ;  '  and 
then  we  watched  the  antics  of  the  in- 
dividual Huns  until  we  simply  rocked  with 
laughter.  First  one  would  cautiously  and 
hesitatingly  get  up  and  make  a  wild  dash 
forward — a  burst  of  fire  from  the  machine 
gun,  and  he  would  disappear,  head  and 
heels,  into  the  nearest  shell-hole.  This 
would  be  repeated  by  every  Hun  in  the 
party.  A  journey  of  three  minutes  occupied 
fully  fifteen  minutes.  The  wild  scrambles 


94  SCOUTING  THEILLS 

and  frantic  dashes  forward  were  hugely 
amusing  to  us.  The  same  thing  happened  on 
the  return  journey — every  man  for  himself. 
We  were  simply  weak  with  laughing,  when 
the  last  of  them  disappeared. 

i  Do  you  think  they  '11  come  back  again, 
Mac  ?  '  asked  Jack. 

'  No,  I  don't;  I  'd  like  to  bet  any  money 
they  don't.' 

Midnight  came,  but  no  Huns;  fifteen 
minutes  after  midnight,  and  still  no  Huns ! 
Thirty  minutes  after,  and  still  no  Huns ! 

'  I  think  we  may  as  well  pack  up  and  go,' 
said  Jack. 

'  Yes,  the  Hun  has  got  wise  at  last.' 

So  we  packed  up  and  went  back  to  head- 
quarters. But  we  had  had  a  very  merry 
demonstration  of  the  old  saying : — '  Pull  the 
string  and  the  figure  will  move ! ' 


VI 
HUN  EAIDS 

IT  was  our  first  trip  in  the  line  after  the 
severe  fighting  —  under  indescribably 
ghastly  conditions — at  Paaschendaele.  We 
were  in  the  Lens  sector,  and  part  of  the  line 
we  took  over  ran  through  the  village  of 
Avion. 

Two  days  before  we  went  in  I  was  with 
a  party  of  officers  who  were  '  looking  over  ' 
the  line  preparatory  to  the  battalion  going 
in.  I  got  into  touch  with  the  scout  officer. 

*  Well,  what  kind  of  a  tour  are  you  having 
— anything  exciting  happening  ?  ' 

'  Nothing  much,  though  he  seems  to  be 
particularly  lively  with  his  "  Minnies  " — 
got  a  party  of  fifteen  last  night — knocked 
the  whole  crowd  out  with  one  shell.' 

1  Have  you  got  a  "  line  "  on  any  of  them 
yett' 

'  Well,  it  's  so  hard  to  do  anything  of 

95 


96  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

the  kind.  He  seems  to  have  all  his  * '  Minnie ' ' 
gun  emplacements  behind  the  railroad  em- 
bankment. Probably  he  has  a  truck  and 
runs  them  up,  firing  a  few  rounds  each  time 
from  different  locations. ' 

*  How  about  patrols,  anything  much 
doing?  ' 

'  No,  nothing  exciting.' 

'  Well,  I  '11  go  up  and  have  a  look  around.' 

6 1  '11  go  with  you,  if  you  like.' 

'  No,  thanks,'  I  replied,  '  I  have  a  scout 
with  me,  and  we  '11  go  around  together ;  we 
can  find  our  way  around  all  right.' 

We  reached  the  front  line — to  find  it 
absolutely  levelled  in  places.  There  was 
no  mistaking  the  Hun's  malicious  interest 
in  the  place!  We  had  not  been  there 
long  before  our  necks  were  getting  stiff 
watching  for  the  '  Minnie  '  shells  as  they 
came  hurtling  through  the  air;  then  came 
the  swift  hissing  noise,  followed  by  the 
tremendous  explosion  that  fairly  shook 
your  teeth  loose,  apart  from  the  horrible 
jar  it  gave  your  heart ! 

'  Say,  this  is  no  picnic  around  here,  is  it  ?  ' 
I  remarked  to  the  scout  who  was  with 
me. 

'  No,  sir,'  he  replied;  *  unless  you  really 


HUN  EAIDS  97 

want  to  stay  to  watch  the  fun,  I  think  we 
might  as  well  go.' 

'  Pun!  I  don't  call  this  fun!  and  I  think 
your  advice  is  about  the  best  I  've  heard  to- 
day, so  let  us  get.'  And  we '  got.' 

The  line  we  took  over  was  most  peculiar. 
The  right  sector  was  at  right  angles  to  the 
left.  No  Man's  Land  on  the  left  was 
simply  a  mass  of  ruined  houses,  and  the 
German  trench  was  about  a  hundred  and 
fifty  yards  from  ours.  On  the  extreme 
right,  No  Man's  Land  was  as  much  as  eight 
hundred  yards  across,  and  all  open  country. 
I  decided,  for  the  first  night,  to  take  a  stroll 
across  the  open  country  and,  with  such  a 
wide  No  Man's  Land,  decided  to  take  out  a 
fairly  large  patrol. 

The  light  was  good  when  nine  of  us, 
making  up  the  patrol,  climbed  out  of  our 
trench  and  started  on  our  way  across  to  the 
German  lines. 

' 1  think  we  might  as  well  walk  for  two 
or  three  hundred  yards,  corporal,  don't 
you*? ' 

6  Yes,  sir,'  he  replied.  '  Our  patrol  is  a 
fairly  strong  one,  and  we  can  afford  to  take 
a  few  risks.  Besides,  the  grass  is  very  wet 
from  the  rain  we  had  to-night;  we  would 


98  SCOUTING  THEILLS 

soon  be  soaking  wet  if  we  got  down  at 
all.' 

So,  keeping  formation,  we  continued  to 
walk  slowly  forward,  pausing  occasionally, 
getting  down  on  one  knee  and  listening. 
The  wet  grass  made  me  loathe  to  do  any 
crawling  until  absolutely  necessary,  so  that 
we  had  really  gone  some  hundreds  of  yards 
when  Pete  came  up  to  me  and  touched  my 
shoulder. 

'  The  German  wire  is  only  about  fifty 
yards  in  front  of  us,  sir,'  he  whispered. 

I  immediately  gave  the  signal  to  get 
down  and  looked  hard  in  front  of  me.  Pete 
was  right — it  was  as  he  had  said.  I  waited 
for  a  few  moments  and  then  began  to  crawl 
forward,  the  corporal  being  alongside  of  me. 
When  about  ten  yards  from  the  wire  I  indi- 
cated to  the  corporal  a  gap  in  the  Hun  wire. 

'  Wait  here, '  I  whispered,  '  while  I  crawl 
forward  into  that  gap.' 

I  reached  the  gap  and  was  pushing  my 
way  through  it  when  something  hit  my  foot 
— a  piece  of  mud.  I  turned  around  in 
time  to  see  the  corporal  making  frantic 
signals  for  me  to  return.  I  lost  no  time 
in  crawling  back.  Pete  was  with  the 
corporal,  his  eyes  shining  with  excitement. 


HUN  RAIDS  99 

'  What  is  it,  corporal*?  '-I  whispered. 
Pete  answered.     '  A  bunch  of  Fritzes, 
sir;     can't     you     see     them     inside     the 


wire.' 


I  looked,  and  sure  enough  there  were 
several  shadowy  forms  almost  opposite  the 
gap — a  Hun  wire  patrol!  If  I  had  con- 
tinued crawling — as  I  most  likely  would 
have  done  but  for  the  warning,  my  view 
being  strictly  limited  to  what  lay  imme- 
diately ahead  of  me — the  Huns  would 
probably  have  almost  walked  over  me! 
It  might  be  asked,  why  didn't  we  throw 
our  bombs  or  use  our  rifles?  The  reasons 
were  excellent  ones.  In  the  first  place  we 
were  several  hundreds  of  yards  from  our 
own  trench.  If  there  had  been  retaliation 
and  we  had  suffered  casualties  the  diffi- 
culties of  getting  them  back  were  really 
enormous.  Then  we  were  new  to  the 
ground;  should  one  or  two  men  become 
separated  from  the  party  there  would  be 
the  danger  of  their  getting  lost  and  maybe 
captured.  With  the  information  we  now 
had  we  could  return  to  this  place  and  lie 
in  wait  for  them.  This  was  our  intention 
when  we  left  there,  but  subsequent  exciting 
events  caused  us  to  quite  forget  these  wire 


100  SCOUTING  THEILLS 

patrollers.  We  returned  to  our  trench 
about  three  o'clock  in  the  morning.  The 
moon  disappeared  about  five  o'clock  and 
there  was  an  hour  of  darkness  before 
daylight.  That  was  the  hour  chosen  by 
the  Hun  to  raid  our  trenches.  He  had 
assembled  two  parties  in  shell-holes  in  No 
Man's  Land,  parties  (we  afterwards  dis- 
covered) of  twenty-five  men  each. 

Shortly  before  dawn,  following  a  period 
unusually  quiet,  there  was  a  sharp,  sudden, 
heavy  bombardment;  a  score  of  big 
'  Minnies  '  came  crashing  over,  uprooting 
the  earth  and  levelling  the  trenches.  Those 
of  the  garrison  who  were  not  killed  or 
wounded,  were  left  dazed  by  the  noise 
and  concussion.  This  was  followed  by 
two  separate  attempts  to  force  an  entry 
into  our  trenches,  but  these  were  gallantly 
beaten  off  by  what  was  left  of  the  garrison. 
The  Hun  raid  had  failed. 

As  soon  as  the  news  of  the  raid  reached 
us  we  went  up  to  get  all  particulars.  The 
Hun  was  viciously  lobbing  his  '  Minnies  ' 
over,  and  the  front  line  trench  was  in  an 
indescribable  condition.  The  garrison,  worn 
out  with  their  weary  vigil  and  trying  ex- 
periences of  the  previous  night,  were  un- 


HUN  RAIDS  101 

able  to  snatch  even  an  hour's  sleep  amidst 
the  deafening  noise  and  destruction  of  the 
bombardment.  There  was  one  particular 
post  which  was,  as  we  thought,  being 
significantly  left  alone.  On  either  side  the 
big  *  Minnies  '  burst  with  distressing  and 
disturbing  regularity.  After  several  hair- 
raising  escapes  we  reached  this  post.  Just 
as  we  reached  it  a  '  Minnie  '  crashed  into  the 
wire  in  front  of  it,  blowing  the  entangle- 
ments sky-high. 

1  Well,  that  just  about  clinches  the 
matter,  corporal,'  I  remarked  to  the  scout 
corporal  who  was  with  me. 

'  No  doubt  about  it,  sir,  he  's  going  to  try 
his  luck  at  this  post  to-night.' 

The  signs  all  pointed  to  it,  and  they  were 
confirmed  by  the  company  commander's 
report  to  headquarters,  in  which  he  said 
he  strongly  suspected  a  raid  on  what  was 
known  as  No.  7  Post.  Accordingly,  all 
defensive  precautions  were  taken.  A  con- 
ference at  headquarters  resulted  in  a  req- 
uisition for  the  necessary  amount  of 
artillery  retaliation  and  machine-gun  fire. 
The  signal  for  this  retaliation  was  to  be  a 
green  flare  fired  from  the  front  line.  When 
this  signal  went  up;  crash  would  come  down 


102          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

our  artillery  and  the  machine  guns  would 
rattle  out,  swishing  across  No  Man's  Land, 
making  any  venturesome  Hun  keep  as  close 
to  Mother  Earth  as  he  could.  When  I 
heard  of  all  these  defensive  arrangements 
I  decided  that  the  scouts  could  very  use- 
fully take  a  hand  in  them.  I  went  along 
to  the  scouts'  dug-out. 

6  What  about  making  up  a  little  reception 
committee  for  the  Huns  to-night,  boys  ?  ' 

The  proposal  was  favourably  received, 
so  I  expounded  my  idea  to  them. 

*  We  '11  go  out  between  four  and  five 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  lie  in  wait  for 
the  Hun  some  distance  in  front  of  the  post 
we  believe  he  is  going  to  attack.  He's 
bound  to  assemble  somewhere,  and  if  we 
can  catch  him  assembling  we  can  spoil  his 
party.' 

So  we  made  our  plans  for  the  part  we 
intended  to  play  in  this  little  drama.  See- 
ing that  we  might  probably  have  a  lively 
early-morning  encounter,  we  abandoned  all 
previous  plans  for  patrols  that  night. 

Shortly  after  four  o'clock  nine  shadowy 
figures  might  have  been  seen  stealing  out 
of  our  trench  and  across  No  Man's  Land. 
In  order  not  to  confuse  the  garrisons  of 


HUN  RAIDS  103 

other  posts  to  the  left  of  the  one  in  front 
of  which  we  proposed  to  assemble  (No.  7 
Post),  we  agreed  not,  under  any  circum- 
stances, to  go  to  the  left  of  this  post.  This 
left  the  garrisons  of  the  two  posts  attacked 
the  previous  morning  (Nos.  9  and  10  Posts) 
free  to  deal  with  any  one  seen  out  in  No 
Man's  Land. 

I  took  my  patrol  out  about  seventy-five 
yards  in  front  of  No.  7  Post,  and,  by  the 
time  we  had  got  into  a  good  defensive 
position,  the  moon  had  disappeared.  About 
a  hundred  yards  in  front  of  us  was  the  Ger- 
man trench.  There  was  the  distinct 
sound  of  something  metallic  striking  against 
the  Hun  wire. 

6  Did  you  hear  that,  corporal?  '  I  whis- 
pered. 

6  Yes,  sir,  somebody  in  the  wire,'  he 
replied. 

6  I  think  it  is  a  little  to  the  left,  don't  you  ? ' 
'  Yes,  it  is  over  in  that  direction,  sir.' 
'  He   may  be   taking   another   crack   at 
No.  10  Post.    Perhaps  he  was  only  trying 
to  bluff  us  when  he  began  isolating  No.  7 
Post?' 

'  Yes,  he  may;  he's  a  tricky  old  devil.' 
'  Well,  in  any  case  he  '11  get  a  hot  re- 


104          SCOUTING  THEILLS 

ception  if  lie  goes  back  there  again.  The 
boys  are  right  on  their  toes  waiting  for 
him.' 

The  minutes  dragged  wearily  on,  and 
there  was  not  another  sound  to  arouse  our 
suspicions.  It  was  the  lack  of  sound  now 
that  made  us  suspicious.  Not  a  shell  was 
coming  over,  not  a  flare  was  going  up. 

6  There  '11  be  something  doing  soon, 
corporal,'  I  whispered. 

'  Yes,  sir,  I  feel  like  that  too,'  he  replied. 

It  was  uncanny,  for  though  we  could 
neither  hear  nor  see  any  one,  we  knew  that 
men  were  moving  around,  and  that  soon 
some  one  would  be  locked  in  a  death-grip 
with  them.  Were  they  out  there  in  front 
of  us?  We  strained  our  eyes  into  the 
darkness  until  they  ached.  Breathless  we 
listened,  with  bombs  ready  to  throw  at 
the  first  sign  of  an  attacking  Hun.  They 
were  moments  of  tense  excitement. 

'  Look,  sir,'  whispered  the  corporal, 
tugging  excitedly  at  my  arm. 

I  looked  up.  There  were  eight  of  them 
— flaming-tailed  '  Minnies.'  They  were  all 
a  little  to  our  left.  There  was  a  tremendous 
crash  and  concussion  as  they  hit  the  ground 
almost  simultaneously.  A  few  seconds  later 


HUN  EAIDS  105 

we  watched  the  flight  of  eight  more.  Then 
another  eight.  Our  hearts  were  beating 
wildly  with  excitement.  Then  from  the 
German  trench  in  front  of  us  a  green  flare 
shot  up — the  signal  to  the  raiding  party  to 
rush  our  posts!  By  a  marvellous  co- 
incidence it  was  the  same  signal  as  our 
local  S.O.S. — the  signal  for  our  artillery  and 
machine  guns  to  open  up.  And  they  did! 
A  perfect  hail  of  machine-gun  bullets 
swished  over  our  heads,  making  even  us 
bite  the  grass!  And  the  raiders?  Well, 
they  were  caught  in  the  storm.  From 
several  directions  we  heard  the  cries  and 
moans  of  wounded  and  dying  men.  We 
also  heard  the  rattle  of  one  of  our  Lewis 
guns  from  the  direction  of  No.  10  Post. 
Our  shells  were  crashing  into  the  Boche 
wire  and  making  the  return  trip  of  the 
raiders  decidedly  warm  and  unhealthy.  I 
was  filled  with  an  overpowering  desire  to 
go  off  in  the  direction  the  cries  came  from 
— a  wounded  prisoner  was  always  worth 
bagging — but  could  not  move,  as  all  the 
cries  were  coming  from  our  left  and  I  had 
arranged  to  keep  away  from  there  so  as  to 
give  the  garrison  a  free  field.  If  we  had 
gone  over  there  and  had  been  seen,  then 


106          SCOUTING  THEILLS 

we  should  have  been  shot  up  too.  The  noise 
and  din  was  indescribable,  and  those  agon- 
ised cries  of  wounded  men  made  the  whole 
experience  inexpressibly  weird. 

6  They  Ve  had  another  try  after  No.  10 
Post,  corporal,'  I  whispered;  '  as  soon  as 
we  can  get  back  we  '11  go  along  and  find 
out.' 

A  few  minutes  later  we  were  back  in  our 
own  trench. 

6  Send  the  rest  of  the  patrol  back  to  head- 
quarters, corporal,  and  you  come  along 
with  me.' 

We  were  soon  rushing  along  our  trench 
in  the  direction  of  No.  10  Post.  We  passed 
a  prisoner  who  had  been  found,  a  few 
minutes  after  the  raid,  trying  to  get  through 
our  wire.  He  was  one  of  the  '  sturm- 
truppen  '  or  '  storm  troops,'  who,  having 
lost  all  sense  of  direction,  thought  he  had 
arrived  back  at  his  own  trench.  He  was 
soon  disillusioned.  A  husky  stretcher- 
bearer,  hearing  the  noise,  climbed  out  of  the 
trench  and  found  him  struggling  in  the  wire. 
At  first  he  began  jabbering  in  German,  but 
was  rudely  interrupted  by  the  stretcher- 
bearer,  who  seized  him  by  the  collar  and 
conferred  upon  him  the  noble  Order  of  the 


HUN  EAIDS  107 

Boot — landing  him  squarely  into  our  trench. 
For  a  '  storm-trooper  '  he  was  a  bit  of  a 
paradox,  his  height  being  barely  five  feet, 
and  he  was  very  slim  and  weakly-looking. 
He  wore  the  ribbon  of  the  Iron  Cross. 
After  giving  him  the  '  once  over,'  we 
arrived  at  No.  10  Post.  We  did  not  wait 
to  make  any  inquiries,  but  hopped  over 
the  parapet.  Not  many  yards  away  there 
was  a  wounded  German  crying  out  loudly 
in  his  agony.  Two  of  our  officers  were  lying 
in  a  shell-hole  just  outside  our  trench.  I 
spoke  to  them. 

'  You  must  have  been  punishing  the  Hun 
to-night,'  I  said. 

'  Yes, '  replied  one  of  them,  '  one  of  our 
Lewis  guns  caught  them  just  as  they  got 
to  our  wire.' 

'  I'm  going  out  to  have  a  look  at  the 
Hun  raising  the  noise;  perhaps  we  can 
get  him  in.  Come  on,  corporal,'  I  said. 
'  We'll  see  what  's  wrong  with  him.' 

We  crossed  over  our  wire,  and  a  few 
yards  beyond  it  we  found  the  wounded 
German.  He  was  making  a  most  unearthly 
noise.  '  Beine!  Beine!  '  he  was  shouting. 
I  took  that  to  mean  his  leg,  so  bent  down 
and  got  hold  of  his  right  leg.  It  was  hang- 


108          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

ing  by  the  skin,  having  practically  been 
severed  by  machine  gun  fire.  Upon  further 
examination  we  found  him  to  have  several 
wounds  in  the  stomach  and  head.  He  was 
well-equipped  for  a  fight — strapped  across 
his  chest  and  under  the  armpits  was  what 
was  known  as  an  apron  for  carrying  bombs. 
In  this  he  was  carrying  six  bombs  of  the 
type  popularly  known  amongst  us  as 
6  potato-mashers  ' — because  of  the  resem- 
blance to  one.  His  pockets  were  filled 
with  cartridge  clips  for  his  rifle,  and  dan- 
gling on  his  belt  was  an  evil-looking  dagger. 
We  unstrapped  his  bomb-apron  and  took 
off  his  equipment.  During  all  this  time 
he  was  groaning  and  shouting  in  pain. 
We  endeavored  to  get  him  out  of  the 
shell-hole,  but  he  was  a  big,  heavy  man,  and 
moving  him  seemed  to  cause  intense  pain. 
We  were  joined  by  one  of  our  officers, 
and  just  as  the  three  of  us  were  pre- 
paring to  move  him  he  died.  We  took 
the  papers,  including  letters  and  postcards, 
from  his  pockets,  and  then  had  a  look 
around.  We  saw  a  tape  stretching  across 
No  Man's  Land  and  leading  into  a  gap  in 
our  wire.  We  followed  the  tape  in  the 
direction  of  our  own  trench,  and  came  to 


HUN  RAIDS  109 

a  shell-hole  in  which  were  lying  three  dead 
Huns.  The  leader,  a  sergeant-major,  was 
clutching  one  end  of  the  tape  in  his  hand. 
His  revolver  lay  on  the  side  of  the  shell- 
hole  nearest  our  trench.  He  had  apparently 
just  raised  himself  preparatory  to  jumping 
out  of  the  shell-hole  and  making  a  dash 
for  our  trench,  when  a  burst  from  the 
Lewis  gun  caught  him  square  in  the  face. 
The  other  two  had  also  been  hit  in  the 
head,  and  killed  instantly.  We  were  full 
of  praise  for  the  boy  at  the  gun;  he  had 
been  wonderfully  cool  and  brave.  After 
removing  all  papers  and  valuables  from 
the  pockets  of  the  dead  Huns  we  returned 
into  our  own  trench.  It  was  then  almost 
dawn.  The  prisoner  taken  had,  upon  ex- 
amination, told  us  of  the  intention  of  the 
German  staff  to  carry  out  raids  until  they 
had  secured  a  prisoner.  The  specially 
trained  troops  known  as  '  sturm-truppen,' 
had  been  given  orders  to  raid  each  night 
until  they  were  successful,  so  it  seemed 
likely  that  we  could  expect  more  attempts. 
Two  unsuccessful  attempts  had  now  been 
made  on  No.  10  Post.  The  post  to  the 
left  of  that  (about  one  hundred  yards  of 
trench  between  these  posts  had  been  evacu- 


110          SCOUTING  THBILLS 

ated  owing  to  the  heavy  meinenwerfer  fire) 
had  been  attacked  once,  so  we  decided  to 
patrol  in  front  of  it.  The  trenches  were 
closer  here,  so  it  was  not  necessary  to  have 
quite  as  large  a  patrol,  and  only  five  of  us 
went  out.  After  getting  clear  of  our  wire, 
we  crawled  forward  (it  was  moonlight)  in 
the  direction  of  the  nearest  German  post, 
about  seventy-five  yards  away.  During 
our  progress  towards  it  we  found  several 
indications  of  the  presence  of  the  raiders 
there  two  nights  ago.  '  Potato-mashers  ' 
were  lying  scattered  around  in  different 
shell-holes.  Meeting  with  opposition,  the 
raiders  had  doubtless  scurried  off  in  various 
directions.  I  crawled  down  into  a  shell- 
hole  filled  with  wire.  There  was  also  wire 
running  back  from  it  towards  the  German 
lines.  I  made  several  futile  attempts  to 
get  underneath  the  wire  to  see  what  lay 
beyond,  but  the  strands  were  cunningly 
woven,  and  I  had  to  give  it  up.  I  crawled 
out  of  the  shell-hole  and  was  moving  over 
the  left,  when  bang  went  a  rifle  not  more 
than  thirty  or  forty  yards  away,  and  a 
bullet  plunked  into  the  ground  a  few  inches 
from  my  head.  The  four  scouts  were 
scattered  around  in  shell-holes  close  be- 


HUN  RAIDS  111 

hind  me.  One  of  them,  a  few  yards  away 
from  me,  beckoned  to  me,  and  I  lost  no 
time  in  getting  into  the  protection  of  the 
shell-hole.  Shortly  afterwards  two  Huns 
stood  up  (head  and  shoulders  showing)  at 
a  point  about  twenty  yards  from  the  wire 
I  had  attempted  to  get  through.  Pete, 
who  was  in  a  shell-hole  on  my  right,  saw 
them,  and  having  a  rifle,  promptly  fired  and 
got  one  of  them.  Apparently  frantic 
signals  were  sent  back  for  reinforcements 
for,  not  more  than  a  couple  of  minutes 
later,  we  saw  five  Huns,  about  seventy- 
five  yards  away,  climb  out  of  one  trench 
and  drop  in  quick  succession  into  another 
leading  out  to  the  advanced  post.  We 
lay  waiting  and  watching  for  several 
minutes,  but  nothing  further  happened. 
We  continued  with  our  patrol,  remaining 
out  until  almost  dawn.  For  one  night  at 
least,  the  Hun  '  sturm-truppen  '  had  a 
rest. 

The  following  night,  shortly  after  dark, 
and  while  we  were  eating  dinner,  the  noise  of 
a  terrific  bombardment  reached  us.  We 
rushed  up  the  dug-out  steps,  and  the  scream 
of  our  own  shells  passing  overhead  was 
what  we  heard  most.  Upon  inquiry  from 


112          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

the  sentry  on  duty  we  found  that  the 
green  flare,  our  local  S.O.S.,  had  gone  up. 
I  rushed  along  to  the  scouts'  dug-out. 

6  Come  on,  boys,  everybody  ready  at 
once ;  there  's  something  doing  up  the 
line. ' 

A  few  minutes  later  we  were  tearing  up 
the  communication  trench  to  the  front 
line.  By  the  time  we  reached  there  things 
had  almost  quietened  down.  I  met  an 
officer  on  duty. 

'  What 's  the  trouble  now  ?  9  I  enquired. 

'  Oh,  Heinie  has  another  crack  at  No.  10 
Post, '  he  replied. 

'  Did  he  get  into  it?  '  I  asked. 

6  No,  he  was  easily  beaten  off,  but  we  have 
had  a  good  many  casualties  from  his 
Minnies.' 

We  went  along  to  No.  10  Post  and  got  the 
story  from  the  corporal  in  charge. 

'  It  was  soon  after  dark,  sir.  He  threw 
over  a  bunch  of  " Minnies"  but  none  of  them 
came  very  close  to  us.  We  saw  one  man  get 
up,  run  forward  and  throw  a  bomb, 
which  landed  on  the  outside  of  the  parapet. 
I  fired  my  rifle  and  one  of  the  men  in  the  post 
threw  a  bomb.  That  was  all  that  hap- 
pened, sir.' 


HUN  EAIDS  113 

*  You  've  apparently  got  them  pretty  well 
scared,  corporal;  they  don't  seem  to  have 
much  heart  for  their  work.    Point  out  where 
you  saw  the  man  that  threw  the  bomb,  and 
we  11  go  out  to  have  a  look  around.' 

The  corporal  did  so,  and  taking  four 
scouts  with  me,  I  started  out  on  patrol. 
The  moon  was  just  rising  when  we  went 
out.  We  got  through  the  wire  and  crawled 
along  the  outside  of  it  until  we  came  to  the 
tape  we  had  seen  there  after  the  last  attempt. 
We  found  it  pinned  into  the  ground  with  a 
pair  of  large  Boche  wire-cutters.  I  followed 
the  tape  along  until  I  came  to  a  huge  shell- 
hole  at  the  end  of  a  piece  of  shallow,  dis- 
used trench.  It  was  smooth  with  use,  and 
had  no  doubt  been  used  for  assembling  the 
main  body  of  the  raiders ;  it  was  not  more 
than  forty-five  yards  from  our  trench.  I 
crawled  into  this  and  beckoned  to  the 
corporal  to  follow  me. 

'  No  doubt  about  this,  is  there  ? '  I 
whispered. 

*  No,  sir,  this  is  the  place  where  they  have 
assembled.    They  must  have  been  here  pretty 
often.' 

'  You  can  also  see  the  path  they  have  come 
along.' 


114          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

In  the  moonlight  it  was  unmistakable, 
standing  out  like  a  bright  broad  ribbon 
stretched  across  No  Man's  Land.  After  in- 
dicating it  to  the  corporal,  I  told  him  to 
wait  there  while  I  followed  it  along  to  the 
Boche  trench.  Owing  to  the  bright  moon- 
light it  was  unwise  for  more  than  one  man 
to  move  along  it ;  so,  keeping  a  little  to  one 
side  of  it,  I  crawled  fairly  quickly  until  I 
came  to  the  Boche  wire  fifty  yards  further 
on.  Looking  up,  I  could  even  see  the 
smooth  part  of  the  parapet,  the  particular 
place  where  the  raiders  were  accustomed  to 
crawl  out  over.  It  was  all  most  interesting. 
Party  after  party,  patrol  after  patrol,  must 
have  moved  along  this  pathway.  There 
was  no  doubt  about  thorough  preparation, 
and  it  would  explain  the  repeated  efforts 
to  enter  No.  10  Post — despite  the  many 
failures.  Fritz  had  really  set  his  heart 
upon  this  undertaking.  I  returned  to  the 
corporal. 

'  There  must  have  been  crowds  of  men 
coming  and  going  along  this  pathway,'  I 
remarked  when  I  got  back  into  the  shell- 
hole  with  him. 

6  Yes,  sir,  they  certainly  intended  to  make 
a  success  of  their  raid. ' 


HUN  EAIDS  115 

6  Well,  I  only  hope  he  returns  to-morrow 
night,  he  '11  probably  find  us  waiting  for 
him.' 

As  the  moon  was  up  now  until  dawn, 
there  was  very  little  probability  of  another 
attempt  being  made,  so  we  returned  to 
headquarters. 

The  next  morning  I  went  along  to  the 
scouts'  dug-out. and  we  talked  things  over. 
The  result  was  that  we  decided  to  take  out 
a  fighting  patrol,  including  a  Lewis  gun  and 
crew,  and  wait  for  the  raiders  near  their 
assembly  position.  I  went  to  the  C.O.  and 
explained  what  we  intended  to  do. 

4  That  seems  a  very  good  plan,  M'Kean,' 
he  said,  '  you  ought  to  take  him  by  surprise 
if  he  makes  another  attempt  to-night. ' 

'  Yes,  sir, '  I  replied,  '  we  rather  hope  he 
will  come  back  to-night.' 

6  How  long  do  you  intend  to  remain  out 
there?' 

'  Until  the  moon  comes  up,  sir;  we  '11  be 
out  between  two  and  three  hours. ' 

'  Pretty  cold  job  for  your  scouts,  M'Kean. ' 

'  Yes,  sir,  it  will  be,  but  they  are  all  very 
keen  about  it.' 

'  You  want  a  Lewis  gun  crew  to  report  to 
you  at  4.30?  ' 


116  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

'  Yes,  sir ;  we  'd  like  men  who  are  keen  on 
this  kind  of  thing. ' 

'  All  right,  I  '11  see  you  get  good  men.' 

The  patrol  was  to  consist  of  nine  scouts 
and  four  Lewis  gunners  with  their  gun. 

Shortly  before  dark  we  arrived  at  No.  10 
Post.  The  Lewis  gun  team  was  there,  and 
I  explained  what  they  would  have  to  do. 

'  Now,  corporal,'  I  said  to  the  N.C.O.  in 
charge  of  the  gun, i  I  am  going  to  place  you 
in  position  a  few  yards  in  the  rear  of  and 
to  the  left  of  the  scouts,  so  that  if  the  Huns 
come  into  their  old  assembly  position  you 
will  be  able  to  fire  into  them  from  the  flank 
— but  don't  fire  until  you  get  the  word  from 
myself  or  the  scout  corporal.  If  they  come, 
we  are  going  to  throw  bombs  into  them  and 
then  rush  them,  and  get  as  many  prisoners 
as  we  can.  Now,  you  understand,  don't 
you1?  ' 

6  Yes,  sir,'  replied  the  corporal. 

As  soon  as  it  was  dark  we  went  out,  mov- 
ing quietly  and  cautiously  until  we  were 
all  in  position,  which  took  several  minutes. 
I  left  two  of  the  scouts  with  the  Lewis  gun, 
the  other  seven  I  took  forward  with  myself. 
About  twenty  yards  from,  and  overlooking 
the  Hun  raiders'  assembly  position,  were 


HUN  RAIDS  117 

three  fairly  large  shell-holes.  Three  of  the 
scouts,  including  the  corporal,  remained 
with  me  in  the  centre  shell-hole ;  two  scouts 
were  in  the  one  on  the  left,  and  two  in  that  on 
the  right.  We  all  had  bombs  ready  to 
throw.  In  a  couple  of  seconds  seven  Mills' 
bombs  could  be  dropped  in  amongst  the 
Huns. 

It  was  a  very  dark  night,  misty,  wet  and 
cold.  We  strained  our  eyes  into  the  dark- 
ness, every  man  being  eager  to  catch  the 
first  glimpse  of  the  Huns.  More  than  once 
I  felt  a  light  touch  on  my  arm — it  was  a 
scout  ready  to  swear  he  had  seen  something 
move.  We  would  all  concentrate  on  the 
suspected  object,  sometimes  hearts  beating 
high  with  hope,  but  we  always  had  finally 
to  admit  that  it  couldn't  have  been  a  Hun. 
We  were  looking  right  into  the  huge  shell- 
hole  that  the  Huns  had  previously  used  for 
assembling,  so  a  man  moving  into  that 
could  not  possibly  escape  us.  We  listened 
as  intently  as  we  looked,  and  so  the  minutes 
dragged  on  into  hours.  I  could  feel  the 
scouts  next  to  me  trembling  with  the  cold, 
and  I  was  trembling  with  it  also.  It  was  a 
wearying,  exhausting  vigil,  yet  all  the  time 
we  were  keyed  up  to  the  highest  pitch  of  ex- 


118          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

pectation  and  excitement.  The  conduct  of 
the  scouts  was  admirable ;  not  a  man  moved 
though  I  knew  their  feet,  like  mine,  must 
have  been  as  cold  as  lead,  and  the  longing 
to  knock  them  together  to  bring  a  little 
warmth  into  them  was  well-nigh  irresistible. 
I  looked  at  my  watch — we  had  been  lying 
there  two  hours  and  a  half.  There  was  a 
perceptible  brightening;  objects  that  had 
looked  shadowy  and  blurred  became  dis- 
tinct— the  moon  was  coming  up.  Fifteen 
minutes  more  and  it  was  quite  bright.  No 
use  waiting  any  longer — the  Huns  would 
not  come  now.  I  turned  to  the  corporal. 

6  Tell  the  men  to  crawl  back  in,  corporal. 
I  '11  wait  here  until  they  are  all  clear  of  the 


wire.' 


This  took  a  few  minutes,  and  when  the 
corporal  came  back  to  me  I  got  up,  cold 
and  stiffened,  and  walked  back  into  our 
trench.  It  was  then  that  I  realised  just  how 
cold  I  was.  My  teeth  chattered  so  that  I 
simply  could  not  speak. 

The  following  night  we  were  relieved. 
The  relief  came  in  as  soon  as  it  was  dark. 
In  order  to  discourage  the  Hun  in  any  idea 
he  might  have  of  raiding,  we  had  machine- 
guns  fire  '  bursts  '  into  the  gap  in  his  wire 


HUN  RAIDS  119 

through  which  he  came  out  into  No  Man's 
Land.  Also  the  corporal  and  myself,  before 
coming  in  the  previous  night,  picked  up  the 
end  of  the  tape  and  took  it  out  into  No  Man's 
Land,  so  that  if  he  followed  the  tape  he 
would  move  in  a  semicircle  and  carry  out  a 
successful  raid  upon  his  own  trench  1 


VII 

THE  MYSTERIOUS   TUNNEL 

ID  you  hear  the  strange  story  of  the 
mysterious  tunnel  in  No  Man's 
Land  in  the  sector  we  have  just  taken 
over?  '  the  brigade  intelligence  officer  asked 
when  I  called  in  at  brigade  headquarters  for 
some  maps. 

'  No,'  I  replied.  *  What  is  the  story ?' 
'  Well,  if  you  will  just  come  over  here  and 
have  a  look  at  this  map  I  will  point  out  to 
you  the  location  of  the  tunnel.  You  see 
there — that  in  No  Man's  Land  is  a  big  rail- 
way siding  in  front  of  Lens.  There  is 
apparently  a  cutting  of  ten  to  fifteen  feet 
deep.  In  the  side  of  this  cutting,  about  a 
hundred  and  fifty  yards  out  from  our  trench, 
there  is  this  tunnel  which  I  have  marked  on 
the  map.  You  will  see  that  these  sidings 
run  diagonally  across  our  front,  and  that 
they  cut  through  the  extreme  right  flank  of 

120 


THE  MYSTERIOUS  TUNNEL    121 

the  right  battalion.  The  right  battalion 
have  a  post  which  looks  down  the  sidings. 
It  was  from  this  post  that  an  officer  of  one 
of  the  battalions  of  the  brigade  we  have 
just  relieved  went  out,  with  a  sergeant  and 
another  man,  to  have  a  look  around.  They 
were  going  cautiously  along,  being  anxious 
to  see  what  was  in  an  apparently  old  log 
building,  when  they  were  stopped  dead  by 
the  sound  of  a  cough  coming  from  a  few 
yards  in  front  of  them.  They  hugged  the 
ground  closely  and  waited.  A  few  minutes 
later  they  heard  men  talking,  and  soon 
afterwards  some  one  came  around  from  be- 
hind this  log  building.  It  was  a  German 
soldier,  carrying  a  rifle.  He  stood  and 
looked  around  for  a  while,  and  then  dis- 
appeared around  the  corner  of  the  old  build- 
ing. This  small  party  then  returned  to 
their  own  trench.  The  following  night  one 
of  our  battalions  relieved  them,  and  the 
officer  who  had  seen  all  this  took  the  scout 
officer  of  our  relieving  battalion  out  for  a 
short  distance  and  pointed  out  to  him  the 
location  of  the  place. ' 

'  It  does  seem  rather  mysterious,'  I  said 
when  he  had  finished  his  story,  '  for  this 
location  marked  on  the  map  is  quite  as  far 


122          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

from  the  Hun  lines  as  it  is  from  ours.  I 
cannot  think  for  a  moment  what  on  earth 
he  is  doing  with  men  so  far  out ;  it  isn't  usual 
for  him  to  do  anything  like  this.' 

6  No,  that  is  what  makes  it  so  mysterious. 
The  Hun  is  not  in  the  habit  of  roaming  so 
far  from  home.' 

*  Are  there  any  theories  at  all  about  it, 
any  explanations  for  this  unusual  conduct  ?  ' 

'  Division  have  one.  It  is  well  known 
that  in  Lens  and  the  Green  Grassier  not  one 
hundred  yards  from  this  tunnel  or  whatever 
it  is,  there  is  a  perfect  labyrinth  of  tunnels,1 
and  it  is  thought  that  there  is  probably  a 
tunnel  running  under  the  railway  from  the 
Green  Grassier.  With  such  a  tunnel  he 
could  easily  assemble  troops  along  the 
cutting  for  a  raid  or  for  a  local  attack  upon 
our  line.' 

'  What  action  do  Division  wish  to  have 
taken  against  it  ?  ' 

6  At  present  the  orders  are  to  make  a 
thorough  and  complete  reconnaissance  of 
the  place,  and  to  report  upon  the  possibility 
of  being  able  to  destroy  it. ' 

1  This  was  quite  true.  Even  from  the  very  best  observation 
posts  giving  direct  observation  into  Lens  it  was  very  seldom 
that  you  would  see  a  single  soldier  moving  about,  though  there 
were  scores  of  German  troops  in  the  place. 


THE  MYSTEEIOUS  TUNNEL  123 

6  Well,  I  suppose  the  battalion  in  the  line 
are  doing  that  now?  ' 

1  Yes,  they  were  out  last  night.  They 
did  not  actually  get  up  to  the  place,  so  have 
nothing  new  to  report.' 

The  next  morning  I  received  instruc- 
tions to  report  to  the  headquarters  of  the 
battalion  in  the  line  (we  were  in  support) 
with  a  view  to  relieving  them  the  following 
day.  When  I  arrived  there  I  immediately 
got  into  touch  with  the  scout  officer,  an  old 
friend  of  mine. 

'  What's  this  yarn  about  a  tunnel  in  No 
Man's  Land?  '  I  asked.  He  laughed. 

'  I  guess  it  is  something  of  the  kind, 
though  we  haven't  seen  any  one  there  yet. 
We  got  fairly  close  to  it  last  night,  and  some 
of  the  boys  swore  they  heard  voices.' 

'  Have  you  seen  the  entrance  yet  ?  ' 

'  No,  we  are  going  to  try  to  get  a  look  at 
that  to-night.' 

6  What  about  the  log  building  I  heard 
about — do  you  think  they  use  that  at 
night?  ' 

'  I  don't  know;  I'm  not  sure  whether  that 
is  a  log  building.  We  expect  to  settle  all 
these  things  to-night.  When  are  you 
going  to  relieve  us  ?  ' 


124          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

'  To-morrow  night.  We  didn't  expect  it 
would  be  so  soon,  but  the  rumour  is  that 
the  division  will  be  out  of  the  line  for 
Christmas;  suppose  that  accounts  for  it. 
Are  you  too  busy  or  too  tired  to  take  me 
over  the  line  ?  ' 

6  No,  not  a  bit.  I  want  you  to  see  where 
this  log  building  is ;  probably  you  '11  have  to 
worry  over  this  thing. ' 

We  left  headquarters  and  went  up  to  the 
front  line,  arriving  just  in  time  to  be  greeted 
with  a  salvo  of  *  pine-apples  '  (a  cross  be- 
tween a  rifle  grenade  and  a  meinenwerfer 
shell) .  We  safely  weathered  this  storm  and 
looked  over  the  different  posts.  At  last  we 
arrived  at  the  extreme  right  flank.  We 
moved  a  little  to  the  right  of  the  last  bomb- 
ing-post, stood  up  and  looked  over  across  at 
the  German  line.  We  couldn't  see  the  log 
building  because  of  its  being  in  the  cutting, 
but  my  companion  indicated  a  crooked 
telegraph  pole. 

*  Do  you  see  the  shell-shocked  telegraph 
pole  over  there?  ' 

6  Yes,  I  know  the  one  you  mean. ' 

'  Well,  that  is  right  alongside  of  this  so- 
called  log  building. ' 

'  How  do  you  get  out  to  it  ?  ' 


THE  MYSTEEIOUS  TUNNEL  125 

1  We  go  out  from  this  post  here,  get 
through  the  wire — it  isn't  very  heavy — 
slide  down  the  side  of  the  cutting  and  go 
along  the  railway,  hugging  the  side  of  the 
cutting  pretty  much  the  whole  of  the  way. 
It 's  rather  a  rotten  way  to  go,  for  there  is 
a  fence  along  the  top  of  the  cutting,  and 
any  Hun  patrol  that  might  happen  to  be 
up  there  have  you  entirely  at  their  mercy. 
They  could  roll  bombs  down  on  top  of  you. 
But  to-night  I  am  taking  a  couple  of  extra 
men  to  move  along  the  top  of  the  cutting 
at  the  same  time  as  we  go  along  the  track.' 

6  Well,  I  hope  you  have  good  luck  to-night 
and  find  out  all  there  is  to  know. ' 

The  next  day  the  C.O.  sent  for  me. 

'  You  '11  have  to  go  up  a  little  earlier  to- 
night than  was  arranged ;  brigade  have  sent 
a  message  to  say  that  the  scout  officer  of  the 
battalion  in  the  line  will  take  you  out 
to  look  at  this  dug-out  or  tunnel  or  what- 
ever it  is.  It  seems  that  they  have  a  scheme 
on  to  blow  the  whole  thing  up,  and  it  will 
be  up  to  us  to  carry  the  scheme  out.  You 
had  better  get  up  there  in  plenty  of  time  to 
get  a  good  look  around.' 

I  saluted  and  went  out.  Shortly  before 
dark  I  reported  at  the  headquarters  of  the 


126          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

battalion  we  were  relieving,  and  was  soon 
chatting  with  the  scout  officer. 

'  Well,  I  'm  to  take  you  out  to  look  at 
our  little  wooden  hut  to-night,  I  under- 
stand? ' 

'  Yes,  I  believe  we  are  supposed  to  do  a 
patrol  together  to-night.  I  have  two  of 
my  scouts  here  who  will  go  out  with  us.  Did 
you  find  out  much  about  the  mystery  last 
night?' 

i  Yes,  a  little  more.  There  is  apparently 
somebody  in  what  looks  like  a  dug-out 
entrance.  We  didn't  see  any  one,  though 
we  waited  around  for  fully  fifteen  minutes.' 

'  Did  you  hear  anything?  ' 

'  Well,  that  is  rather  doubtful.  Some  of 
the  boys  with  me  thought  they  heard  sounds 
coming  from  the  dug-out,  and  I  also  thought 
I  heard  something  of  the  kind,  though  I 
would  not  like  to  swear  to  it.' 

6  Well,  if  you  will  take  me  out  and  show 
me  the  jolly  old  hut,  I  '11  carry  on  the  good 
work  of  investigation. ' 

'  Yes,  we  '11  go  in  a  few  minutes ;  it 's  a 
long  walk  up  to  the  front  line,  and,  as  the 
relief  will  be  coming  in,  we  shall  find  it  slow 
going.' 

We  did  find  it  slow  going,  and  it  was  after 


THE  MYSTEEIOUS  TUNNEL  127 

eleven  o'clock  before  we  got  out.  As  we 
could  only  be  seen  from  one  post,  and  we 
were  in  a  hurry,  we  warned  only  the  men  in 
this  post.  We  also  asked  them  if  they  could 
spare  us  a  couple  of  bombs.  They  handed 
them  to  us  and  we  quickly  disappeared 
into  the  darkness  of  No  Man's  Land.  We 
climbed  over  the  wire  and  slid  down  the 
steep  cutting.  After  travelling  for  about 
a  hundred  yards  I  saw  the  log  building  (as 
it  was  then  understood  to  be)  about  fifty 
yards  away.  Leaving  the  two  men  in  a  shell- 
hole  we  pushed  on  to  within  twenty 
yards  of  it.  We  waited  for  a  few  minutes, 
listening  intently.  There  were  unmistak- 
able sounds  of  movement  on  the  side  of 
the  building  farthest  away  from  us.  We 
waited  a  few  minutes  longer,  but  no  one 
appeared,  so  we  rejoined  the  two  men  and 
made  our  way  back  towards  our  own 
trench.  After  a  great  deal  of  difficulty  we 
climbed  up  the  cutting  and  were  stepping 
carefully  over  our  wire  when  a  peremptory 
'  Halt,  who  goes  there  ?  '  made  us  pause 
suddenly  and  look  up  in  surprise.  To  ex- 
plain this  unexpected  challenge  I  must  go 
back  to  the  time  when  we  left  our  outpost. 
We  had  paused  there  for  a  few  seconds, 


128  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

merely  to  say  we  were  going  out  on  a  patrol 
and  would  be  back  in  a  little  over  an  hour. 
Apparently  we  had  not  been  sufficiently 
lucid  for  the  two  men  in  the  post,  who  were 
comparatively  new  to  trench  warfare.  We 
had  walked  overland  to  the  outpost,  which 
was  in  a  bit  of  a  trench  running  out  from 
the  front  line.  The  two  men,  having  been 
in  the  post  only  a  few  minutes,  had  a  very 
hazy  idea  of  where  we  had  come  from,  but 
they  made  up  for  this  by  vivid  and  active 
imaginations.  This  was  the  story  they  told 
the  officer  who  visited  them  a  few  minutes 
later.  A  party  of  four  men  dressed  as 
Canadians  had  visited  the  outposts,  and 
asked  them  a  lot  of  questions  about  the 
different  machine-gun  and  bombing-posts 
in  the  vicinity,  and  also  the  whereabouts  of 
company  headquarters  (I  myself  had  asked 
them  a  few  casual  questions),  and  had  then 
disappeared  in  the  direction  of  the  German 
lines.  The  officer  naturally  became  highly 
suspicious,  brought  up  reinforcements,  in- 
cluding a  Lewis  gun,  and  it  was  his  voice 
that  I  recognised  calling  out  the  challenge. 
I  disentangled  myself  from  the  wire  and 
sauntered  over  in  the  direction  of  the  post. 
Again  that  sharp  challenge. 


THE  MYSTERIOUS  TUNNEL  129 

'  It  's  all  right,'  I  shouted  back  jokingly, 
'  don't  riddle  me  with  bullets  or  begin 
planting  bombs  at  my  feet.'  But  he  didn't 
think  it  was  a  joke. 

*  Halt !  '  he  yelled  back ;   '  advance  one 
and  give  the  pass- word.'    Then  I  was  woe- 
fully at  fault!   I  knew  it  was  the  name  of 
some  bird  or  other. 

'  Sparrow!  '  I  yelled,  but  no  response. 
'  Crane  ' ;  no  reply.  I  thought  furiously, 
and  then  joyfully  shouted, 

'Lark!  '   That  did  it! 

'  Come  on  in,  Mac,  you  old  reprobate,'  he 
shouted.  '  You  haven 't  half  put  the  wind  up 
us  to-night.' 

I  advanced,  and  was  rather  shocked  to 
see  one  Lewis  gun  and  four  rifles  pointed  at 
me  and  behind  them  two  men  standing  with 
bombs  ready  to  throw!  We  dropped  into 
the  trench  and  went  back  to  company 
headquarters.  The  officer  who  had  taken 
me  out  was  anxious  to  rejoin  his  battalion,  so 
left  us  here.  His  parting  words  were : 

*  Hope  you  blow  Heinie  sky-high  out  of 
the  tunnel.' 

Enticing  smells  of  cooking  were  coming 
up  from  the  dug-out,  and  I  gratefully  and 
promptly  responded  to  the  invitation  to  have 


130          SCOUTING  THEILLS 

a  meal.  I  asked  if  it  included  the  scout  who 
had  remained  with  me,  and  he  said  it  did,  so 
we  were  soon  enjoying  a  hot  appetising  meal 
in  a  dug-out  that  went  partly  beyond  our 
own  front  line  out  underneath  No  Man's 
Land. 

'  Where  's  your  box  respirator,  Mac  ?  9 
some  one  asked  me. 

I  looked  at  the  place  on  my  chest  where  it 
should  have  been.  It  wasn't  there!  My 
horrible  absent-mindedness  again. 

*  It  would  be  a  rotten  joke  on  me  if  they 
put  gas  over  to-night,'  I  said.  Soon  after- 
wards I  left  and  went  along  the  front  line, 
visiting  the  outposts  as  was  our  custom  the 
first  night  in  the  line.  I  was  with  two  men 
in  a  listening  post  about  thirty  yards  out 
from  the  front-line  trench.  I  lay  alongside 
of  them  talking  to  them  in  whispers  and 
asking  a  few  questions,  when  a  series  of 
pops  from  the  German  lines  followed  by 
the  sight  of  several  flaming-tailed '  Minnies,' 
making  a  rapid  descent  upon  our  trenches, 
took  up  the  whole  of  our  attention. 

In  place  of  the  crashing  explosions  we 
expected  to  hear  there  were  several  signifi- 
cant muffled  noises.  '  Gas !  '  we  whispered 
simultaneously.  I  hurried  back  to  the  front 


THE  MYSTEEIOUS  TUNNEL  131 

line  in  time  to  hear  the  word  '  gas  '  passed 
along.  Men  hurriedly  dived  into  their 
respirators.  The  smell  of  gas  was  unmis- 
takable! Another  salvo  of  Minnies  filled 
with  gas  dropped  just  behind  the  front-line 
trench.  What  a  delightful  position  I  was 
in !  The  nearest  dug-out  with  a  gas  blanket 
on  the  entrance  was  about  a  hundred  yards 
down  the  trench.  With  my  hand  pressed 
tightly  over  my  mouth  and  nose,  I  made  a 
wild  rush  along  the  trench,  bumping  into 
weird-looking,  groping  figures  who  gave  out 
muffled  peculiar  sounds,  indicating  their  dis- 
approval of  the  rough  knocks  I  gave  them 
as  I  passed.  I  dare  not  laugh  in  case  I 
opened  my  mouth,  and  for  the  same  reason 
I  could  not  stop  to  apologise.  At  last  I 
reached  the  dug-out  and  made  a  wild  dash 
through  the  entrance.  Only  my  heels  touched 
the  top  step.  I  shot  down  the  twenty  odd 
steps  with  the  velocity  of  a  5.9,  landing  at  the 
bottom  with  a  bang  and  a  clatter,  over- 
turning the  cook's  brazier  (and  also  the  cook, 
who  sat  at  the  bottom  of  the  steps  and  who 
immediately  set  up  a  gurgling  protestation 
as  he  struggled  to  express  himself  in  the 
limitations  of  a  gas  respirator),  and  his 
collection  of  pots,  pans,  and  dishes.  In  the 


132          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

dim  light  of  the  flickering  candles  I  saw 
several  solemn-looking  figures  in  various 
attitudes,  all  wearing  their  strange-looking 
gas  masks.  The  dug-out  was  as  silent  as 
the  grave. 

6  Anybody  got  a  spare  respirator  ?  '  I 
shouted. 

They  turned  their  owl-like  eye-pieces  in 
my  direction  and  let  it  go  at  that.  I  re- 
peated my  question.  A  man  removed  his 
mouth-piece  long  enough  to  shout  a  muffled 
'  No,  sir,'  and  then  hurriedly  replaced  it. 
I  hunted  around  and  found  a  dirty  old 
P.H.  helmet,  and  soon  became  the  weirdest 
looking  figure  in  that  solemn  throng !  After 
a  few  minutes  the  taste  of  that  old  P.H. 
became  infinitely  more  detestable  than  any 
amount  of  gas.  If  I  had  to  be  poisoned  I 
preferred  pure  gas  poisoning,  so  I  took  off 
the  helmet.  There  was  only  a  very  faint 
smell  of  gas,  and  soon  afterwards  the  gas 
sentry  reported, '  All  clear. '  A  fairly  strong 
breeze  was  blowing,  and  the  gas  didn't  hang 
around  long.  I  hopped  up  out  of  the  dug- 
out as  soon  as  I  saw  the  cook  taking  off  his 
respirator,  and  went  back  to  headquarters, 
firmly  resolved  that  I  wouldn't  again  forget 
my  respirator. 


THE  MYSTERIOUS  TUNNEL  133 

The  following  day  I  discussed  the  '  tunnel 
mystery  '  with  the  scouts,  and  we  decided 
that  four  of  us  would  go  out  that  night  and 
get  into  that  entrance  if  possible ;  also  that 
we  would  see  what  was  in  the  reported  log 
building.  Before  going  out  that  night  a 
message  came  from  Division  to  report  on 
the  possibilities  of  blowing  up  the  entrance 
to  the  tunnel.  We  were  all  most  eager  for 
this  patrol,  but  did  not  forget  to  carefully 
warn  all  the  outposts  that  we  were  going  out. 
I  for  one  did  not  wish  to  be  received  back 
into  our  own  trench  with  quite  as  much 
ceremony  as  on  the  previous  night. 

It  was  a  clear  starlight  night  when  we  left 
our  trench.  Two  of  us  slid  quietly  down  the 
side  of  the  cutting,  the  other  two  remaining 
on  top  as  a  protection  to  us.  Crouching 
close  to  the  side  of  the  cutting,  we  moved 
quietly  along  to  within  thirty  yards  of  the 
supposed  log  building,  and  dropped  into  a 
huge  shell-hole  in  the  centre  of  the  railway 
track.  We  waited  here  for  a  few  minutes, 
listening  intently  for  sounds  of  movement. 
We  then  crawled  forward  on  our  stomachs 
towards  the  log  building.  It  was  rough  and 
difficult  ground  to  crawl  over,  with  broken 
rails  and  uprooted  '  ties  '  lying  around. 


134          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

The  least  clink  on  the  metal  would  have 
given  the  game  away  had  any  one  been 
within  hearing  distance.  With  my  heart 
beating  a  little  faster  than  usual,  I  reached 
the  rough  walls  of  the  frequently  mentioned 
log  building,  crawled  along  the  side  farthest 
from  the  cutting,  cautiously  poked  my  head 
around  the  corner,  and  found  myself  looking 
into  the  entrance  of  this  tunnel  or  dug- 
out. I  listened  for  a  few  seconds,  not 
even  breathing  during  the  time.  Not 
a  sound.  I  crawled  over  to  the  entrance, 
then  stood  up  to  look  at  the  building — 
which  wasn't  a  building  after  all.  It 
was  a  rough  palisade  of  logs  let  into  the 
ground  and  bound  together  with  wrought 
iron  bands.  They  formed  three  sides  of  a 
square,  the  side  of  the  cutting  forming  the 
fourth.  The  whole  thing,  which  was  filled  in 
with  ballast,  formed  a  square  of  roughly 
about  twelve  feet,  the  height  of  it  being  a 
little  over  five  feet ;  and  standing  behind  it 
you  had  an  excellent  view  along  the  railway 
in  the  direction  of  our  lines.  I  then  pro- 
ceeded cautiously  to  descend  the  steps  of  the 
tunnel  entrance.  They  were  in  good  repair 
and  there  were  signs  that  some  one  had  been 
there  quite  recently.  I  had  got  down  as  far 


THE  MYSTEEIOUS  TUNNEL  135 

as  the  fifth  step  when  I  clearly  heard  sounds 
of  movement  below.  If  the  night  is  at  all 
bright  any  one  coming  down  the  steps  of  a 
dug-out  is  clearly  visible  to  those  at  the  bot- 
tom. Such  being  the  case,  I  would  pre- 
sent an  excellent  target,  and  I  therefore 
'  backed  up,'  reached  the  entrance  and 
stood  at  one  side  of  it.  The  sounds  of 
movement  continued;  I  also  distinctly 
heard  voices.  They  were  coming  up  the 
steps.  I  slipped  around  the  side  of  the 
barricade  and  dropped  into  a  shell-hole 
alongside  of  the  scout  who  had  accompanied 
me.  Soon  afterwards  three  Germans 
appeared,  two  of  them  carrying  rifles. 
They  talked  in  low  tones  for  a  while,  looked 
around,  and  went  back.  It  would  have 
been  quite  easy  to  throw  a  bomb  and  get 
the  three  of  them,  but  we  should  never  have 
got  near  that  entrance  again  without  a  fight 
for  it.  Whatever  the  Hun  was  premeditat- 
ing, it  would  spoil  his  plans  if  we  could  only 
blow  up  that  entrance.  After  this  we  re- 
turned to  our  own  lines.  Soon  after  my 
report  had  gone  in,  a  message  came  from 
brigade  saying  that  Division  wished  to 
have  this  entrance  blown  up  without  any 
further  delay.  It  also  stated  that  a  twenty 


136  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

pound  mobile  charge  would  reach  head- 
quarters that  night  to  be  used  for  this  pur- 
pose. It  arrived  shortly  after  six  o'clock, 
while  I  was  having  dinner.  Two  men  from 
the  engineers  had  brought  it,  but,  apparently 
thinking  that  we  knew  all  there  was  to  know 
about  mobile  charges,  they  had  not  left  any 
instructions  about  exploding  it,  and  to  ex- 
periment for  such  information  was  a  rather 
dangerous  pastime.  I  had  seen  heaps  of 
mobile  charges — long  tin  cylinders  filled 
with  ammonal,  with  a  small  tin  handle  at- 
tached which  enabled  you  to  carry  them  as 
you  would  a  suit  case,  but  I  had  very  hazy 
ideas  as  to  how  they  should  be  handled. 
There  was  a  prompt  chorus  of  disapproval 
and  protest  from  the  other  occupants  of  the 
dug-out  when  I  suggested  that  we  should  look 
at  the  thing  and  see  how  it  worked.  I  sent 
for  the  bombing  sergeant;  he  had  not  seen 
one  just  like  it  before,  but  was  confident  he 
could  quickly  find  out  how  it  worked.  We 
were  proceeding,  with  our  investigations 
when  I  became  aware  of  the  very  noticeable 
and  unusual  silence  in  the  dug-out.  I 
looked  around — everybody  had  quietly 
slipped  out.  In  a  few  minutes  we  had 
everything  adjusted,  cutting  down  the  fuse 


THE  MYSTERIOUS  TUNNEL    137 

to  a  thirty  second  one.  I  understood  ex- 
actly how  to  work  the  patent  fuse  lighter. 

I  had  arranged  that  six  of  us  should  go 
out,  two  along  the  top  of  the  cutting  and 
four  along  the  railway  track.  Before  going 
out  we  explained  to  all  the  sentries  what  we 
proposed  doing,  and  warned  them  to  be  pre- 
pared for  a  lively  time  if  the  Hun  be- 
came alarmed  and  annoyed.  A  slight  fall 
of  snow  promised  to  add  to  our  difficulties. 
We  went  out  the  usual  way.  I  went  ahead, 
and  one  of  the  scouts  carrying  the  mobile 
charge  followed  close  behind.  I  confess  I 
was  in  a  constant  state  of  trepidation  about 
that  mobile  charge.  I  thought,  '  If  a 
machine-gun  bullet  hits  it,  will  it  explode  ?  ' 
If  so,  then  I  had  a  disturbing  vision  of  the 
swift  disintegration  of  my  humble  self ! 

4  Whatever  you  do/  I  whispered  to  the 
scout  carrying  it,  '  if  anything  starts  up, 
throw  that  thing  as  far  away  from  you  as 
you  can/ 

'  Yes,  sir,'  he  replied,  and  I  knew  by  the 
tone  of  his  voice  that  he  was  every  bit  as 
anxious  about  it  as  I  was.  We  reached  the 
big  shell-hole  about  thirty  yards  from  the 
barricade.  I  signalled  to  the  scouts  on  the 
top  of  the  cutting  to  remain  where  they 


138          SCOUTING  THEILLS 

were  at,  left  two  men  in  the  shell-hole,  and, 
accompanied  by  the  scout  carrying  the 
mobile  charge,  started  crawling  towards  the 
barricade.  A  delicious  thrill  of  anticipation 
shot  through  me  as  I  pushed  my  head  around 
the  corner  of  the  barricade  and  looked  into 
the  entrance  of  the  tunnel.  The  snow 
around  the  entrance  was  disturbed:  some 
one  had  been  up  again !  I  got  up,  tip-toed  to 
the  entrance  and  listened.  There  was  no 
mistaking  it,  there  were  men  down  there. 
I  signalled  to  the  scout — he  handed  me  the 
mobile  charge.  I  removed  the  lid  and 
pulled  the  pin  of  the  patent  lighter.  It 
made  a  sound  as  loud  as  the  report  of  a 
revolver.  I  heaved  the  long  cylinder  down 
the  steps  and  promptly  ran.  We  reached 
the  big  shell-hole  where  the  two  scouts  we 
had  left  behind  had  remained,  and  waited 
for  developments.  We  hadn't  long  to  wait. 
There  was  a  muffled  explosion,  and  we  could 
feel  the  ground  underneath  us  distinctly 
tremble — our  mobile  charge  had  been  a 
success!  A  few  seconds  later  a  dozen  flare 
lights  shot  up  from  the  German  lines,  and 
there  was  some  desultory  bombing  and 
machine-gun  fire.  They  were  evidently 
puzzled  as  to  what  had  happened.  We 


THE  MYSTBEIOUS  TUNNEL  139 

waited  a  few  minutes,  then  started  to  steal 
back  homewards,  feeling  considerably  elated 
over  our  success.  A  single  rifle  shot  rang 
out,  and  the  bullet  plunked  into  the  side  of 
the  cutting  a  few  feet  behind  us.  We  were 
spotted!  The  light  snow  covering  on  the 
side  of  the  cutting — which  was  our  back- 
ground— had  brought  into  relief  our  dark 
figures.  A  burst  of  machine-gun  bullets  hit 
the  rails — we  flopped.  Again  the  flare 
lights  shot  up,  and  one  machine  gun 
viciously  swept  up  and  down  the  track. 
We  got  up  again  and  the  same  thing 
happened.  It  was  a  slow  and  exciting 
trip  back,  a  fifteen-minute  journey  was 
lengthened  out  into  one  of  an  hour  and  a 
half.  We  were  very  thankful  to  find  our- 
selves at  last  in  the  protection  of  our  own 
trench.  We  were  satisfied  to  know  that  the 
troublesome  entrance  had  at  least  been  ef- 
fectively closed.  I  have  never  been  able  to 
account  for  the  activity  of  the  Hun  around 
that  entrance.  There  was  no  doubt  but  what 
he  was  contemplating  some  mischief.  If  so, 
then  the  scouts  had  the  satisfaction  of  frus- 
trating him. 


VIII 
LOST  IN  NO  MAN'S  LAND 


about  a  raid  this  tour,'  was 
one  of  the  queries  of  the  cheery 
Scout  Officer  of  the  battalion  we  were  re- 
lieving. 

6  Oh,  I  guess  we  '11  do  the  odd  one,'  I 
replied,  '  seeing  that  it  is  now  the  order  of 
the  day,  and  most  especially  the  order  of 
the  night.  What  have  you  been  doing  in 
that  line  this  trip  ?  '  I  asked. 

'  Oh,  we  've  done  nothing  this  time;  the 
battalion  in  support  are  putting  on  one  to- 
night, though.' 

'Many  in  it?  ' 

'  No,  only  a  small  party.' 

'  A  stealth  raid?  ' 

'  Yes,  they  expect  to  grab  the  odd  sentry. 
But  stay  and  have  dinner  with  us  to-night.  ' 

6  Righto  !  I  expected  to  dine  with  you  to- 
night. I  'm  staying  up  until  the  battalion 
arrives  to  relieve  you  to-morrow  night.  I 

140 


LOST  IN  NO  MAN'S  LAND     141 

hope  there  's  a  corner  in  your  dug-out  un- 
occupied/ 
'  Sure,  we  '11  find  a  place  for  you  to  crawl 


in.' 


The  dug-out  was  a  crowded  but  cheery 
place. 

6  Come  in,'  called  out  the  C.O.,  and  pretty 
soon  I  was  feeling  quite  at  home.  A  sig- 
naller brought  in  a  message  which  he  handed 
to  the  adjutant,  who  in  turn  passed  it  on  to 
the  C.O. 

6  Zero  hour  for  the  raid  to-night  is  eight 
o'clock,'  he  announced  casually;  *  good  luck 
to  them !  Hope  they  bag  a  prisoner — it  will 
save  other  people  a  lot  of  trouble  if  they 
do.' 

But  they  didn't.  Just  as  they  were 
cautiously  approaching  the  gap  the  artillery 
had  made  in  the  wire  they  were  spotted! 
'  Heinie  '  was  standing-to  waiting  for  them, 
machine  guns  spat  viciously,  bombs  began 
to  fly  promiscuously  around,  and  the  party, 
owing  to  casualties,  was  forced  to  withdraw. 
The  C.O.  commented  on  this  information, 
which  reached  us  about  ten  o'clock. 

'  Was  just  a  bit  afraid  that  was  what 
would  happen  to-night.  You  cannot  blow 
gaps  into  his  wire  without  putting  him  wise 


142  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

to  what  you  intend  doing,  and  you  cannot 
possibly  get  into  his  trench  unless  you  do 
blow  his  wire  up — he  has  a  regular  forest  of 
it  in  front  of  his  line. '  He  then  turned  and 
addressed  his  remarks  to  me. 

' 1  suppose  it  will  be  up  to  you  people  to 
put  on  a  raid  now  ?  ' 

*  Yes,  sir, '  I  replied,  '  I  understand  we 
are  doing  something  in  that  line  this  tour 
in.' 

The  next  day  I  spent  several  hours  look- 
ing over  the  line,  visiting  every  O.P.  around, 
trying  to  get  a  view  of  that  gap  in  the  Hun 
wire  from  every  angle.  I  had  already  de- 
cided to  see  for  myself  just  what  kind  of  a 
gap  it  was,  and  if  we  could  possibly  use  it 
for  forcing  an  entry  into  the  German 
trenches. 

All  the  arrangements  were  complete  for 
the  relief,  and  soon  after  dusk  elements  of 
our  battalion  began  to  arrive.  It  was  very 
dark  and  the  relief  was  rather  slow.  After 
headquarters  had  arrived  the  C.O.  sent  for 
me. 

'  What  do  you  propose  doing  with  your 
scouts  to-night,  M'Kean?  ' 

6 1  should  like  to  look  at  that  gap  in  the 
German  wire,  sir.' 


LOST  IN  NO  MAN'S  LAND     143 

'  Which  gap  is  this,  M'KeanT 
6  The  one  the  raiding  party  tried  to  get 
through  into  the  German  trench  last  night, 


sir.' 


6  Why?  Do  you  think  it  will  be  of  any 
use  to  us  ?  ' 

'  It  may,  sir — if  it  is  a  good  one ;  and  I 
want  to  see  for  myself  if  it  is  any  good.' 

6  All  right,  M'Kean;  report  to  me  as 
soon  as  you  get  back.' 

'  Very  good,  sir,'  I  said,  saluted,  and  went 
to  my  own  corner  of  the  dug-out  and  pre- 
pared to  go  out.  I  examined  my  Webley, 
saw  that  it  was  in  good  order;  made  sure 
that  I  had  my  compass  with  me;  carefully 
studied  my  map;  and  then  went  out  to 
collect  my  scouts.  It  was  intensely  dark 
as  I  stumbled  along  the  duck-boards  to 
where  their  dug-out  was  at.  Arrived  there,  I 
found  them  waiting  for  me. 

6  Everybody  ready,  sergeant?  ' 

'  Yes,  sir ;  could  you  give  us  the  pass-word 
before  we  go  ?  ' 

*  Oh,  yes,  I  'd  almost  forgotten.  GIN  is 
the  pass- word  to-night. ' 

'  Hope  it  will  be  EUM  when  we  come  back, 
sir!  '  called  out  Billie,  one  of  the  boys,  and 
everybody  laughed. 


144          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

It  was  quite  a  long  walk  up  to  the  front 
line,  and  the  trenches  were  a  little  crowded, 
for  the  relief  wasn't  quite  completed.  I 
was  anxious  to  get  out  as  soon  as  possible, 
for  it  would  be  bright  moonlight  at  one 
o'clock,  and  it  was  now  nearly  eleven.  At 
last  we  got  into  the  front  line.  The  com- 
munication trench  we  had  just  come  up  hit 
the  front  line  about  three  hundred  yards 
to  the  right  of  the  place  where  I  had  decided 
to  go  out  at.  I  had  my  prismatic  compass 
already  set  at  a  bearing  that  would  take  us 
in  a  fairly  direct  line  for  the  gap  I  was  so 
curious  about,  so  decided  to  move  along  the 
trench  to  the  left  until  I  came  to  that  par- 
ticular spot.  Then  I  started  to  do  what  I 
was  always  most  particular  about — to  give 
complete  information  to  every  sentry  as  to 
the  strength  of  the  patrol;  where  we  were 
going  out  at;  the  direction  we  would  be 
going  in,  and  approximately  the  time  we 
intended  to  return. 

To-night  this  was  done  rather  hurriedly, 
for  I  wanted  to  get  to  the  gap  before  the 
moon  came  up.  I  hadn't  gone  many  yards 
along  the  trench  when  I  met  one  of  our 
officers. 

'  Say,  old  man,  would  you  mind  warning 


LOST  IN  NO  MAN'S  LAND      145 

the  sentries  to  the  right  of  that  C.TJ  I  'm 
in  a  bit  of  a  hurry  to  get  out. ' 

'  Eighto !  '  he  replied.  Unfortunately  he 
was  wounded  shortly  after  I  left  him,  and 
with  consequences  to  us  that  made  our  re- 
turn altogether  too  exciting  and  difficult 
for  our  comfort. 

As  I  went  along  the  trench  I  climbed  up 
on  to  the  firing  step  and  whispered  into  the 
ear  of  each  sentry : 

1  A  patrol  of  nine  men  is  going  out  in  a  few 
minutes.  It  will  move  straight  out  towards 
the  German  line  and  will  be  back  in  about 
two  hours.' 

We  arrived  at  the  place  I  had  marked  on 
the  map  and  prepared  to  go  out,  replacing 
our  steel  helmets  with  woollen  'Bacaclavas' 
('  Old  Bill'  headgear). 

6  You  and  the  corporal  will  keep  close  be- 
hind me,  sergeant.  We  '11  move  out  in  the 
inverted  V  formation. ' 

'  Very  good,  sir, '  replied  the  sergeant. 

I  then  climbed  up  on  to  the  parapet  and 
got  close  to  the  ground  to  look  at  the  wire. 
I  spotted  a  place  where  it  was  a  little  thin, 
and  in  a  few  minutes  was  outside  of  our  own 
wire  and  sitting  comfortably  in  a  huge 
shell-hole.  I  could  hear  the  rest  of  the 


146          SCOUTING  THEILLS 

patrol  cautiously  following,  and  one  by  one 
they  crawled  quietly  into  the  shell-hole  after 
me.  It  was  rather  cold,  and  the  ground  was 
frozen  a  little,  sufficient  to  make  it  difficult 
to  move  quietly.  When  we  were  all 
assembled  in  the  shell-hole,  and  I  had 
set  my  compass  so  that  the  luminous  patch 
on  the  cover  pointed  out  to  me  the  direction 
we  had  planned  to  go,  we  moved  forward 
in  the  formation  agreed  upon.  The  ground 
was  new  to  us  and  simply  pitted  with  shell- 
holes,  some  of  them  immense  ones;  this, 
added  to  the  darkness,  made  our  progress 
slow.  I  knew  the  distance  between  the 
lines  at  this  point  to  be  about  two  hundred 
and  fifty  yards,  and  that  about  one  hun- 
dred yards  out  there  was  a  disused  trench 
running  diagonally  across  our  front.  It  was 
no  joke  trying  to  keep  direction  across  that 
rough  ground,  and  equally  difficult  to  keep 
in  your  head  an  accurate  idea  of  the  dis- 
tance you  had  travelled.  As  I  wriggled 
along  towards  the  German  line  I  looked  up 
and  saw  what  I  could  have  sworn  were  the 
heads  of  five  Germans,  about  thirty  yards 
in  front  of  me.  '  An  enemy  patrol,'  I 
thought ;  '  what  luck !  '  A  few  whispered 
instructions,  and  the  men  in  the  rear  came 


LOST  IN  NO  MAN'S  LAND     147 

up  on  either  side  and  began  to  move  for- 
ward, the  whole  of  the  patrol  converging 
on  the  suspected  enemy  patrol.  They  were 
still  there,  and  I  was  enjoying  a  nice  thrill 
of  excitement,  when  a  horrible  suspicion 
gripped  me — I  got  up  quickly  and  ran  for- 
ward. It  was  as  I  suspected — five  baulks 
of  round  timber  which,  upon  examination, 
proved  to  be  some  of  the  remains  of  a  de- 
stroyed emplacement  in  the  disused  trench 
we  were  looking  for !  We  silently  reformed 
and  pushed  on  again  for  another  seventy- 
five  yards.  I  then  went  forward  with  three 
men,  leaving  the  remainder  behind  to  cover 
our  approach  to  the  gap  we  expected  to 
find.  It  was  noticeably  brighter  than  when 
we  first  started  out — the  moon  was  coming 
up.  We  crawled  quietly  forward,  and  in 
the  dim  light  of  the  rising  moon  we  could 
faintly  discern  the  outlines  of  the  German 
wire  entanglements. 

We  continued  to  move  cautiously  forward 
from  shell-hole  to  shell-hole  until  only  a  few 
yards  from  the  German  wire.  The  four  of 
us  were  in  an  especially  large  shell-hole,  and 
I  had  decided  to  wait  for  a  few  moments  in 
the  hope  of  a  flare-light  going  up  and  giving 
us  an  opportunity  to  get  a  good  view  of  the 


148          SCOUTING  THEILLS 

German  wire,  when  I  thought  I  heard 
sounds  of  movement  on  the  right.  Billy, 
the  boy  on  my  right,  also  apparently  heard 
and  raised  himself  to  have  a  look.  I 
reached  out  my  hand  to  pull  him  down, 
but  too  late!  At  the  same  moment  a 
hand-grenade  landed  and  exploded  at  the 
edge  of  the  shell-hole  and  about  a  foot  from 
his  head.  He  gave  a  gasp  and  rolled  back 
dead.  A  fusilade  of  bombs  followed,  and 
machine  guns  spat  viciously.  Myriads  of 
lights  went  up,  making  the  night  as  bright 
as  day.  I  could  see  a  party  of  Germans 
just  inside  of  our  own  wire;  they  had 
apparently  been  expecting  another  attempt 
to  raid.  It  became  frightfully  warm,  and 
the  noise  was  deafening.  To  get  back  the 
dead  body  of  our  comrade  was,  for  the  time 
being,  out  of  the  question.  Bombs  were 
exploding  on  all  sides.  I  was  expecting  one 
to  drop  in  amongst  us  at  any  moment.  I 
whispered  to  the  other  two  to  follow  me,  and 
we  made  a  dash  back  out  of  the  range  of  the 
bombs  and  rejoined  the  rest  of  the  party. 
In  a  few  minutes  things  began  to  quieten 
down.  Not  one  of  us  ever  dreamed  of 
leaving  our  dead  comrade  out  there;  a 
scout  always  brings  back  the  dead  and 


LOST  IN  NO  MAN'S  LAND     149 

wounded — it  is  a  code  of  honour.  Then  it 
was  Billy,  one  of  the  most  popular  boys  in 
our  section,  always  willing,  always  bright 
and  cheery,  the  star  player  in  our  battalion 
base-ball  team.  We  had  scores  of  senti- 
mental reasons  for  getting  his  body  and, 
added  to  this,  there  was  an  important 
military  reason.  It  was  ten  to  one  that, 
if  left  alone  for  a  few  minutes,  the  Hun 
would  be  out  to  search  his  body  and  would 
obtain  identification.  Their  Intelligence 
Staff  would  consider  this  most  important 
and  satisfactory  information,  while  ours 
would  be  correspondingly  annoyed. 

1 1  want  two  volunteers  to  go  back  with 
me  to  bring  in  Billy, '  I  whispered.  Every- 
body was  most  eager  to  go  with  me.  I 
picked  two  and  gave  instructions  to  the  re- 
mainder. '  Three  will  go  to  that  shell-hole 
to  the  left,  and  cover  us  with  your  rifles; 
the  o.ther  two  will  stay  here  and  be  ready  to 
move  forward  if  we  get  into  a  scrap. '  When 
the  three  had  moved  over  to  the  shell-hole 
and  were  in  position,  we  went  forward ;  but 
we  were  seen,  and  the  row  started  again. 
But  we  persisted ;  our  first  difficulty  was  to 
find  the  shell-hole  we  had  been  in  when 
Billy  was  killed.  This  was  no  easy  matter, 


150          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

for  they  all  looked  alike.  Every  time  we 
got  up  to  go  from  one  shell-hole  to  another 
the  machine  guns  rattled  and  the  bullets 
whizzed  around.  I  decided  to  search  for 
it  myself,  trying  each  shell-hole  close  at 
hand  and  returning  each  time  to  the  two 
boys  with  me.  It  was  rather  bewildering  and 
nerve-racking,  and  I  heaved  a  big  sigh  of 
relief  when  at  last  I  found  the  place  we 
had  been  in.  I  placed  Billy's  body  in  such 
a  position  that  we  could  quickly  seize  it 
and  carry  it  away.  Then  I  crawled  back 
to  the  two  boys. 

'  Get  ready  to  rush  forward  with  me,'  I 
whispered.  At  a  whispered  word  we  all  got 
up,  ran  quickly  forward,  seized  hold  of 
Billy's  body,  and  ran  back  to  the  protection 
of  a  shell-hole.  By  a  miracle  the  three  of 
us  escaped  the  hail  of  machine-gun  bullets. 
Eventually  we  reached  the  two  boys  we 
had  left  behind  and  were  soon  rejoined  by 
the  three  scouts  who  had  been  detailed  as  a 
covering  party.  By  this  time  the  sky  had 
become  clouded,  and  there  was  a  fairly  heavy 
ground  mist.  We  rested  until  things  had 
become  quiet  again,  and  then  started 
back.  We  were  naturally  more  or  less  ex- 
cited, and  travelled  for  some  distance  before 


LOST  IN  NO  MAN'S  LAND     151 

giving  the  proper  amount  of  thought  to  the 
direction  in  which  we  were  going.  It 
seemed  to  all  of  us  that  we  had  been  travel- 
ling long  enough  to  reach  our  own  wire.  I 
consulted  iny  compass.  We  were  travelling 
almost  due  south,  and  we  should  have  been 
travelling  west;  in  other  words  we  had 
been  moving  parallel  to  our  own  line  and 
had  probably  got  off  the  front  our  battalion 
was  holding.  I  knew  that,  further  south, 
the  line  zig-zagged  a  little  and  No  Man's 
Land  narrowed  down  to  seventy-five  and 
one  hundred  yards  in  places.  The  ground 
mist  had  thickened,  and  we  were  simply 
groping  around  stumbling  from  shell-hole  to 
shell-hole.  The  situation  was  full  of  peril, 
for  even  our  friends  might  prove  to  be  our 
foes.  We  stumbled  on  for  another  half 
hour,  hoping  each  moment  that  we  should 
come  to  our  own  wire.  But  never  a  sign  of 
it  did  we  see.  We  longed  to  hear  a 
friendly  Canadian  voice,  longed  for  a  flare- 
light,  longed  for  something  to  happen !  But 
no;  just  a  threatening,  menacing  silence. 
We  were  lost  in  No  Man's  Land!  All  this 
time  we  were  carrying  Billy's  body  with  us ; 
two  of  us  went  crouching  ahead,  fingers  on 
the  triggers  of  our  revolvers,  ready  and  ex- 


152          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

pectant ;  then  four  of  them  carrying  Billy ; 
then  the  remaining  two  to  watch  the  rear; 
and  so  we  stumbled  on  for  what  seemed  like 
hours — in  that  thick  fog,  slipping  and  fall- 
ing, expecting  each  moment  to  be  confronted 
with  enemies.  My  foot  caught  in  something. 
I  stumbled  and  hit  the  ground  with  a  crash. 
But  at  the  same  time  I  gave  a  great  gulp 
of  relief.  I  had  fallen  amongst  some  wire 
entanglements.  But  whose'?  We  had  been 
wandering  around  so  long  in  that  impene- 
trable darkness  that  we  couldn't  swear  to 
anything.  It  was  just  as  likely  that  it  was 
German  wire  as  that  it  was  British.  Bold- 
ness was  the  only  method  of  solving  the 
difficulty.  To  approach  it  cautiously  was  to 
court  disaster.  There  was  a  strong  likeli- 
hood of  it  being  our  own  trench,  and  if  they 
spotted  us  crawling  up  to  it  we  would  never 
get  into  it  alive.  The  fact  that  we  would 
speak  in  English  would  make  them  doubly 
suspicious.  Scores  of  Germans  spoke  Eng- 
lish; it  was  a  favourite  German  trick  for 
springing  a  surprise  on  our  sentries.  No, 
to  approach  boldly  would  be  the  best.  So 
I  decided  to  try  this  method  alone,  but  one 
of  the  boys  insisted  on  coming  with  me. 
We  got  up  and  started  climbing  over  the 


LOST  IN  NO  MAN 'S  LAND       153 

wire.  Then  we  heard  a  little  pop,  such  as 
accompanies  the  discharge  of  a  rifle  grenade, 
followed  by  a  significant  whine.  We  flopped. 
Just  in  time!  A  rifle  grenade  exploded  at 
our  heels.  I  got  up — *  Hello,  GIN/  I  yelled 
at  the  top  of  my  voice.  Bang! — a  bullet 
whizzed  past  my  cheek.  '  GIN,  GIN,  all 
right  GIN  !  '  Bang !  another  bullet  whizzed 
past  me.  I  ducked,  and  at  the  same 
time  a  rifle  grenade  exploded  behind  us 
and  perilously  close  to  the  boys  we  had 
left  behind  in  the  shell-hole.  What  could 
I  do?  I  knew  it  was  our  own  trench  for 
they  were  Mills'  grenades  that  were  explod- 
ing. I  must  get  into  that  trench.  I  jumped 
up  again.  '  Gin,'  I  yelled,  *  for  God's  sake 
stop  your  firing. '  Bang  again,  and  another 
bullet  whizzed  past,  but  I  kept  on  climbing 
over  the  wire. 

6  Hello,'  a  voice  shouted,  *  who  is  that?  ' 
'  The  battalion  scouts;  didn't  you  know 
we  were  out  ?  '  I  replied.  0 

'  No,  we  hadn't  been  told  about  it.' 
I  had  hit  the  extreme  right  flank  of  our 
battalion,  and  about  six  hundred  yards 
south  of  the  point  where  I  had  gone  out. 
The  officer  who  had  undertaken  to  warn 
the  sentries  had  been  wounded  soon  after 


154          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

I  left  him,  so  my  message  had  never  reached 
them.  We  returned  to  the  boys  in  the  shell- 
hole. 

6  It  's  all  right,  boys,  we  're  home  at  last.' 

*  Very  glad,  sir ;  it  's  been  rather  a  rough 
night.' 

'  Yes,  it  has ;  everybody  seems  to  have  a 
spite  against  us  to-night.' 

We  got  a  stretcher  and  carried  Billy  back 
to  headquarters.  It  was  breaking  daylight 
when  I  said, '  Turn  in  and  have  a  sleep,  boys, 
you  must  be  tired,'  and  left  them.  When 
I  arrived  at  headquarters,  the  C.O.  was 
resting,  so  I  wrote  out  my  report — inter- 
rupted by  many  brief  naps.  I  thankfully 
crawled  into  my  bunk  and  was  soon  sleeping 
soundly  and  dreamlessly.  It  was  my  first 
and  last  experience  of  being  lost  in  No  Man's 
Land. 


IX 
WINNING  A  V.C. 

TT  was  in  the  critical  days  of  April,  1918. 
•*•  The  Boche  thought  he  was  winning, 
while  we  more  or  less  disagreed  with  him. 
He  had  the  advantage  though,  for  he  was  the 
attacking  party,  and  kept  us  more  or  less 
guessing  as  to  his  intentions — one  of  the 
chief  disadvantages  of  being  on  the  de- 
fensive. What  the  staff  craved  for  was  in- 
formation; and  the  best  means  to  find  out 
what  was  happening  behind  the  Boche  line 
was  to  get  hold  of  some  one  who  had  been 
there  quite  recently,  in  other  words — to  grab 
a  prisoner  or  two.  He  had  started  out  gaily 
one  day  in  March  for  a  triumphant  entry 
into  the  suffering  city  of  Arras,  but  had  been 
sent  staggering  back.  He  was  now  licking 
his  sores,  and  we  wondered  if  he  was  going  to 
have  another  try. 

We  had  been  out  for  a  few  days'  rest,  and 
the  following  day  were  due  to  go  back  into 

155 


156  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

the  line.  The  C.O.  held  a  conference  at 
headquarters,  and,  being  Scout  Officer,  I 
had  been  notified  to  attend.  The  C.O.  at 
once  took  us  all  into  his  confidence. 

'  The  army  intelligence  people  are  very 
anxious  to  get  a  prisoner.  Recently  a  few 
stealth  raids,  using  small  parties  of  men, 
have  been  attempted,  but  without  any  great 
success.  We  have  received  orders  to  put  on 
something  big,  and  something  that  will 
guarantee  success  from  the  beginning.  We 
are  to  co-operate  with  a  battalion  that  will 
be  on  our  left.  This  is  merely  a  preliminary 
announcement  of  our  intention  and  must 
be  kept  secret.  This  raid  will  be  carried  out 
during  our  tour  in  the  line.' 

This  was  a  welcome  announcement,  for 
it  promised  something  exciting,  especially 
for  the  scouts.  Previous  experience  of  raids 
warned  us  to  be  prepared  for  some  especially 
hard  work. 

The  following  night  we  carried  out  our 
relief,  and  about  midnight  were  settling 
down  to  the  routine  of  a  trench  tour.  Being 
on  the  defensive,  special  precautions  were 
taken  against  surprise.  When  the  head- 
quarters of  the  battalion  we  relieved  had 
gone,  the  C.O.  sent  for  me. 


WINNING  A  V.C.  157 

'  Now,  then,  M'Kean,'  lie  said,  '  I  want 
you  to  start  at  once  to  locate  definitely  all 
the  German  outposts  on  our  front,  and  to 
find  out  the  condition  of  the  German  wire. 
We  must  have  this  information  before  we 
can  make  our  plans  for  this  raid.  You  can 
find  out  about  this  in  your  own  way — you 
know  more  or  less  what  is  wanted.' 

Now,  if  there  was  one  kind  of  a  job  we  pre- 
ferred above  all  others,  it  was  the  job  of 
locating  enemy  posts.  We  got  into  real 
touch  with  the  Boche,  and  usually  exchanged 
compliments  in  the  shape  of  bombs.  I  took 
my  map  and  went  along  to  the  scouts'  dug- 
out, and  we  talked  over  the  most  likely 
place  to  go  to  get  quick  results.  Running 
out  from  our  front  line  to  the  Boche  line 
were  several  old  communication  trenches, 
and  we  decided  to  try  our  luck  along  one  of 
these.  It  was  very  probable  that  the  Boche 
had  an  outpost  in  this  trench,  and  it 
was  fairly  safe  to  presume  that  it  would 
be  well  protected,  for  he  never  took  a 
chance. 

Pointing  to  this  trench  marked  on  the 
map,  I  remarked  to  the  sergeant : 

*  I  think  we  should  find  somebody  at  home 
along  here,  don't  you ?  ' 


158          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

'  Yes,  sir,'  lie  replied,  '  it  seems  a  most 
likely  place.' 

'  All  right,  we  '11  go  there.  Hurry  the 
boys  up  and  be  sure  to  bring  along  a  fairly 
good  supply  of  bombs — they  're  useful 
things  to  use  in  a  trench.' 

About  an  hour  later  we  reached  the  front 
line.  It  was  a  dark  night  and  the  Boche 
was,  as  usual,  very  generously  supplying  all 
the  artificial  light  for  No  Man's  Land.  We 
had  decided  to  go  out  on  the  extreme  right 
flank,  so  warned  all  the  sentries  as  we  went 
along  that  we  were  going  out  on  patrol. 
We  reached  the  place  we  were  going  out 
from.  It  was  an  outpost  along  the  com- 
munication trench  about  twenty  yards  out 
from  our  front  line.  In  the  trench  in  front 
of  the  post  was  a  mass  of  loose  barbed  wire, 
forming  a  '  block.'  It  was  fairly  well  pro- 
tected on  the  surface.  A  corporal  was  in 
charge  of  the  post. 

4 'Anything  stirring  around  here,  corpo- 
ral? '  I  asked. 

6  Yes,  sir,  he  's  bothering  us  with  machine- 
gun  fire  —  sweeps  right  over  the  top. 
"  Shorty "  there'  (he  indicated  a  tall, 
lanky  youth)  '  has  just  had  a  hole  knocked 
into  his  steel  lid.' 


WINNING  A  V.C.  159 

His  words  were  quite  true.  At  that  very 
moment  a  hail  of  machine-gun  bullets  swept 
over  our  heads. 

'  He's  been  doing  that  every  few  minutes, 
sir, '  the  corporal  remarked. 

'  Well,  we  're  going  out  to  see  if  we  can 
wake  up  a  Heinie.  Five  of  us  are  going  out 
along  this  old  C.T.,  expect  to  be  back  in  a 
couple  of  hours.'  We  took  off  our  steel 
helmets,  and  put  on  our  woollen  caps.  I  then 
waited  for  a  few  moments,  for  the  old 
Boche  was  always  methodical,  and  I  knew 
we  were  about  due  for  another  ration  of 
those  machine-gun  bullets.  They  came. 
Immediately  afterwards,  followed  by  the 
four  scouts,  I  climbed  out  of  the  trench, 
over  the  wire,  and  dropped  into  the  trench 
again  on  the  other  side  of  our  '  block. '  I 
was  soon  joined  by  the  scouts  with  me. 

'  Now,  I  want  two  of  you  to  keep  a  special 
look-out  along  the  top,'  I  whispered;  '  we 
don't  want  any  Hun  patrol  to  get  in  behind 
us  and  cut  us  off.'  Then  taking  out  my 
revolver  from  its  holster,  I  stepped  quietly 
along  the  trench,  pressing  each  foot  firmly 
into  the  ground  before  moving  forward,  and 
so  eliminating  the  possibility  of  kicking  any 
loose  stones  lying  around.  The  trench  '  zig- 


160  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

zagged  '  a  little,  and  I  could  never  see  more 
than  two  or  three  yards  ahead  of  me.  We 
had  gone  about  a  hundred  yards,  and  I  was 
standing  perfectly  still — listening.  I  heard 
the  rattle  of  a  few  loose  stones  only  a  few 
yards  ahead  of  me.  I  quietly  slipped  back 
the  revolver  into  my  holster,  and  took  out 
a  bomb  from  my  pocket.  I  grasped  it  in 
a  manner  so  that  I  could  quickly  pull  the 
pin  and  throw  it.  A  revolver  was  always 
a  useful  weapon  when  once  at  close  quarters, 
but  a  bomb  was  more  useful  for  the  pre- 
liminary sparring.  I  pushed  on  a  few  yards 
around  a  bit  of  a  curve.  About  twenty 
yards  from  me  I  saw  two  Huns  standing  in 
the  trench,  and  three  others  lay  on  top, 
looking  towards  me.  A  Hun  patrol!  I 
pulled  the  pin  out  of  my  bomb  and  got  ready 
to  throw  it,  when  one  of  them  saw  me  and 
gave  the  alarm.  They  all  scampered  away 
just  as  I  let  fly  with  the  bomb.  As  soon 
as  the  bomb  exploded  I  pulled  out  my 
revolver  and  ran  along  the  trench  in  the 
direction  in  which  the  Huns  had  disap- 
peared. I  had  only  gone  a  few  yards  when  I 
ran  bang  into  a  wire  '  block  '  strongly  con- 
structed. I  was  just  collecting  myself  when 
I  heard  a  significant  whine,  and  a  bomb  ex- 


WINNING  A  V.C.  161 

ploded  outside  the  trench.  A  moment  later 
there  was  another  deafening  explosion  as  one 
burst  just  behind  me.  It  was  most  un- 
healthy, and  I  took  to  my  heels  until  well 
out  of  range.  There  was  a  series  of  ex- 
plosions as  the  bombs  came  bouncing  over. 
We  returned  to  our  trench,  and  I  was  able 
to  report  the  definite  location  of  one  German 
bombing-post. 

The  next  morning  we  decided  to  try  a 
daylight  patrol  along  another  old  com- 
munication trench.  I  took  Pete  with  me, 
a  sturdy  boy  and  an  old,  experienced  scout, 
who  loved  fighting  as  much  as  a  duck  loves 
water.  The  difficulty  was  in  getting  out  of 
our  trench  and  through  our  wire  without 
being  seen,  for  unseen  glasses  and  telescopes 
were  constantly  searching  along  the  out- 
lines of  our  front  line  for  any  signs  of  move- 
ment. After  several  minutes  of  squeezing 
and  wriggling,  and  without  raising  our 
bodies  an  inch  from  the  ground,  we 
finally  succeeded  in  getting  to  the  other 
side  of  our  wire  '  block.'  We  were  pretty 
much  out  of  breath  though  when  we  got 
there,  so  sat  down  and  had  a  rest.  Then, 
with  revolver  firmly  clasped  in  my  hand, 
and  followed  by  Pete  carrying  a  bomb  (Pete 


162  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

was  the  most  wonderful  bomb-thrower  I 
ever  saw),  we  proceeded  with  our  recon- 
naissance. Owing  to  the  zig-zag  line  of  the 
trench  I  could  never  see  more  than  a  few 
yards  ahead  of  me,  so  that  I  experienced 
a  succession  of  delightful  thrills  of  anticipa- 
tion, expecting  any  moment  to  see  or  meet 
with  something  interesting.  At  last  I  came 
to  some  fairly  new  barbed  wire,  loosely 
strewn  in  the  trench  as  a  kind  of  rough 
obstacle.  I  turned  round  and  whispered  to 
Pete: 

'  I  think  we  're  getting  warm,  Pete. ' 
'  Yes,  sir.    I  don't  think  his  post  is  far 
from  here.' 

We  climbed  carefully  over  this  wire,  and 
a  few  feet  further  along  came  to  a  strong, 
impassable,  well-constructed  wire  block.  I 
tried  several  different  methods  to  enable 
me  to  get  through  it,  but  in  vain.  I  tried 
to  wriggle  underneath ;  to  get  past  it  side- 
ways; for  I  was  most  anxious  to  have  a 
look  over  that  barricade  of  new  sandbags  a 
few  feet  further  on.  I  was  contemplating 
climbing  over  the  top  of  it,  when  the  head 
and  shoulders  of  a  Hun  abruptly  appeared, 
looking  at  me  over  the  sandbag  block  re- 
ferred to.  We  looked  each  other  square  in 


WINNING  A  V.C.  163 

the  eye,  and  the  surprise  was  mutual.  I 
had  stuck  my  revolver  in  my  holster,  and 
so  was  unprepared  to  become  suddenly 
aggressive.  But  good  old  Pete  was  right 
there.  I  heard  the  click  of  the  released 
lever  as  a  bomb  flew  over  my  head  and 
dropped  neatly  on  the  other  side  of  that 
block.  There  was  an  explosion,  followed 
by  a  shriek  of  pain.  We  were  satisfied  with 
our  information,  so  lost  no  time  in  getting 
back  into  our  own  trench. 

When  I  got  back  to  headquarters  the  C.O. 
sent  for  me. 

1 1  want  you  to  come  with  me  to  the  head- 
quarters of  the  battalion  that  is  putting  on 
this  raid  with  us;  we  are  going  to  have  a 
conference  there  to  arrange  preliminary  de- 
tails.' 

We  arrived  there  about  an  hour  later.  As 
a  result  of  the  conference,  it  was  arranged 
to  have  a  joint  patrol  to  carry  out  an  ex- 
tensive reconnaissance  over  practically  the 
whole  of  the  front  on  which  the  raid  would 
take  place.  This  was  on  a  frontage  of  about 
six  hundred  yards.  It  was  to  be  really  a 
frontal  attack  on  a  wide  stretch  of  trench, 
with  one  or  two  small  parties  working  up 
some  old  communication  trenches.  The 


164  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

large  parties  for  the  frontal  attack  were  to 
be  assembled  in  No  Man's  Land,  and  one 
of  the  purposes  of  the  patrol  was  to  select 
assembly  positions  for  these  parties.  No 
Man's  Land,  opposite  the  front  to  be  raided, 
was  from  three  to  five  hundred  yards  across, 
so  we  expected  to  be  able  to  find  good 
assembly  positions  a  considerable  distance 
out  from  our  own  front  line.  At  midnight 
(the  time  agreed  upon)  the  captain  in  charge 
of  our  raiding  parties,  the  scout  sergeant, 
and  myself,  met  two  officers  and  a  sergeant 
from  this  other  battalion.  The  sentries  had 
already  been  warned,  so  we  went  out  im- 
mediately. It  was  a  brilliant  moonlight 
night,  and  we  moved  around  quickly  and 
undisturbed.  Nothing  eventful  happened 
until  we  reached  the  track  of  a  light  railway 
which  ran  directly  across  No  Man's  Land 
at  right  angles  to  our  front  line.  We  were 
then  roughly  about  one  hundred  yards  from 
the  Boche  front  line.  We  knew,  from  a 
recent  aeroplane  photograph,  that  he  was 
digging  a  new  trench  about  fifty  yards  out 
from  his  present  front  line,  so  we  were  then 
only  about  fifty  yards  from  this  partly  dug 
trench.  The  captain  from  the  other  bat- 
talion turned  round  to  me  and  whispered: 


WINNING  A  V.C.  165 

'  I  think  you  and  I  will  go  up  this  track 
towards  this  new  trench;  the  remainder 
can  stay  here  in  this  shell-hole.' 

'  Righto,'  I  replied,  *  lead  on.' 

So  we  started  crawling  up  on  the  outside 
of  the  track  until  about  twenty  yards  from 
the  new  trench.  We  could  distinctly  hear 
sounds  of  men  working  with  picks  and 
shovels,  and  lay  listening  for  some  time, 
when  suddenly  and  startlingly  two  Huns 
popped  up,  apparently  out  of  the  ground  in 
front  of  us.  We  hadn't  realised  we  were 
quite  so  close  to  that  trench.  It  seemed 
impossible  for  them  not  to  see  us  lying 
there,  so  bright  was  the  moonlight.  They 
stood  for  a  few  moments  looking  down  the 
track,  then  crossed  over  it  and  dropped  into 
the  trench  on  the  other  side.  We  rejoined 
the  rest  of  the  party  and  carried  on  with 
our  patrol. 

Although  No  Man's  Land  was  so  ex- 
ceptionally wide  opposite  our  trench,  there 
was  one  place  where  the  Huns  had  been  seen 
manning  a  post  only  forty  yards  from  one 
of  ours.  It  was  in  one  of  the  old  com- 
munication trenches.  In  behind  this  post 
they  had  a  machine-gun  post.  The  bomb- 
ing-post was  at  least  two  hundred  yards  out 


166          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

from  their  main  trench  line,  and  the  ma- 
chine-gun post  about  thirty  yards  in  the  rear 
of  it.  The  machine-gun  post  promised  to  be 
very  troublesome,  for  it  could  enfilade  the 
ground  over  which  the  main  body  of  the  raid- 
ing party  had  to  cross.  I  had  asked  to  be 
given  the  command  of  one  of  the  raiding 
parties,  so  the  C.O.  gave  me  command  of 
the  party  detailed  to  attack  this  bombing- 
post  and  the  machine-gun  post  in  the  rear 
of  it.  As  the  scouts  were  to  be  distributed 
amongst  the  five  separate  raiding  parties,  I 
selected  Pete  to  go  with  me.  Pete  was  full 
of  enthusiasm  and  fight,  his  dark  eyes  glow- 
ing as  we  talked  over  different  plans  for 
attacking  these  posts. 

I  reported  to  the  C.O.  the  results  of  our 
joint  patrol;  he  made  notes  and  told  me  to 
be  ready  to  attend  a  conference  of  officers 
in  charge  of  raiding  parties  some  time  in 
the  afternoon.  I  attended  this  conference, 
and  it  was  arranged  that  I  should  take  these 
different  officers  to  the  assembly  positions 
selected  for  their  parties.  A  meeting-place 
was  arranged  and  a  time  fixed  upon.  The 
hour  was  late  enough  to  give  Pete  and  my- 
self sufficient  time  to  investigate  the  locality 
we  were  most  interested  in.  I  sent  for  Pete. 


WINNING  A  V.C.  167 

6  What  about  a  patrol  as  soon  as  it  gets 
dark,  Pete?  I  want  you  to  come  with  me 
to  see  if  we  can  locate  definitely  where  this 
bombing-post  is  that  we  have  to  tackle.' 

'  Yes,  sir,  the  sooner  we  find  out  exactly 
where  they  are  the  better. ' 

'  All  right ;  come  back  in  a  couple  of  hours' 
time  and  we  '11  go  out.' 

It  was  just  dark  when  Pete  and  I  crawled 
out  from  our  outpost.  We  crawled  past  our 
block  and  dropped  into  the  communication 
trench.  A  few  feet  further  on  we  came 
to  the  Hun  block,  strongly  constructed  of 
wire.  To  approach  the  post  by  that  direc- 
tion was  out  of  the  question.  We  climbed 
out  of  the  trench,  got  down  into  a  big  shell- 
hole  and  held  a  whispered  consultation. 

'  Don't  you  think  we  should  go  straight 
ahead,  sir  ?  '  suggested  Pete ;  '  we  can  keep 
fairly  close  to  this  trench.' 

1  Yes,  I  think  we  '11  push  on  ahead.' 

We  crawled  out  of  the  shell-hole  into 
another  adjoining  it.  From  this  we  saw  a 
mass  of  barbed  wire,  and  proceeded  to  crawl 
up  a  slight  rise  towards  it.  We  worked  our 
way  cautiously  into  it  at  a  place  where  it 
was  a  little  thin.  It  was  moonlight,  but 
there  was  a  clouded  sky,  and  it  was  raining 


168  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

a  little.  After  crawling  partly  through  the 
wire,  we  lay  side  by  side,  looking  and 
listening.  Pete  had  wonderfully  quick  eye- 
sight and  saw,  about  seventy-five  yards 
away,  the  shadowy  outlines  of  three  Ger- 
mans—apparently digging.  In  a  whisper 
he  called  my  attention  to  them.  We  were 
busily  engaged  watching  them  when  there 
was  a  loud  report,  and  a  flare  light  shot  up 
about  thirty  yards  in  front  of  us.  It  was 
rather  startling  and  unexpected.  But  we 
saw  something  even  more  startling  and 
unexpected.  Pete  clutched  my  arm  ex- 
citedly. 

'  Do  you  see  him,  sir,  right  there  in  front 
of  us?' 

It  would  have  been  impossible  not  to  see 
him,  the  '  him  '  being  a  German  sentry  not 
more  than  fifteen  yards  away,  head  and 
shoulders  showing  above  the  outline  of  a 
trench.  In  speaking,  Pete  had  turned  his 
head  towards  me.  We  were  seen!  The 
sentry  brought  his  rifle  quickly  to  his 
shoulder,  there  was  a  loud  report,  a  blinding 
flash,  and  the  thud  of  a  bullet  into  the 
ground  underneath  my  chin  (we  were  on  a 
slight  rise  in  the  ground).  A  few  seconds 
later  another  report  and  flash  and  the  thud 


WINNING  A  V.C.  169 

of  a  bullet  to  the  left,  and  just  under- 
neath Pete.  He  had  missed  us  both ! 

'  Get  out  of  the  wire  as  quick  as  you  can, 
Pete,  before  he  has  time  to  throw  a  bomb.' 
I  wriggled  out  myself  in  time  to  help  Pete. 
We  got  up  and  ran  back.  Only  just  in 
time — a  bomb  dropped  and  exploded  just 
about  where  we  had  been  lying.  A  machine 
gun  just  behind  this  post  fired  a  burst,  the 
bullets  passing  over  our  heads. 

*  The  son  of  a  gun,  Pete,'  I  said  laughing, 
'  he  really  dares  to  show  fight.  He  's  in  for 
a  beautiful  time  if  he  's  in  the  same  place 
to-morrow  night.' 

Pete  was  stuttering  with  rage. 

'  Let  me  go  back  and  throw  these  bombs, 


sir.' 


'  No,  we  don't  want  to  alarm  him,  to  find 
that  the  bird  has  flown  when  we  get  there  to- 
morrow night.  You  can  go  back  to  head- 
quarters. I  'm  going  to  take  these  officers 
out  to  their  assembly  positions.' 

It  was  daylight  when  I  got  back  to  head- 
quarters. I  turned  in  for  a  few  hours'  sleep. 
Early  in  the  afternoon,  accompanied  by 
Pete,  I  went  to  talk  over  our  plans  with  the 
party  of  men  detailed  to  me  for  our  little 
stunt.  They  clustered  around  me  while  I 


170  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

showed  them  some  maps  and  sketches  of  the 
trench  we  were  interested  in. 

6  Eight  here, '  I  said,  pointing  to  the  map, 
6  is  our  own  post,  about  thirty  yards  along 
this  C.T.  out  from  our  front  line.  There  is 
a  block  here  which  we  shall  have  to  crawl 
over.  About  forty  yards  further  along  this 
C.T.  you  see  marked  the  German  bombing- 
post  :  we  know  exactly  where  this  is  for  we 
saw  the  German  sentry  there  last  night. 
In  front  of  this  post  is  a  strong  wire  block 
about  twenty  yards  long.  Now,  we  are 
going  to  assemble  in  shell-holes  on  each  side 
of  this  trench.  Six  men,  under  Pete,  will 
rush  this  first  post — three  men,  with  Pete, 
will  be  on  this  side  of  the  trench,  while  the 
other  three  will  be  on  the  other  side.  Four 
rifle  grenades  will  be  fired  into  this  machine- 
gun  post  marked  here — about  thirty  yards 
in  rear  of  the  bombing-post.  This  will  be 
the  signal  to  rush  the  first  post.  Then  six 
more,  under  myself,  will  follow  quickly  be- 
hind and  rush  the  machine-gun  post.  One 
man  will  look  after  the  mobile  charges,  for 
there  are  two  dug-outs  to  blow  up.  Now, 
speed  is  to  be  the  essential  thing;  pile  right 
in  on  top  of  them — don't  give  them  time  to 
guess  what  is  happening.  If  you  drop  your 


WINNING  A  V.C.  171 

rifle,  fight  with  your  fists.  The  zero  hour 
is  one  o  'clock  in  the  morning,  and  we  '11  try 
to  get  into  position  about  quarter  to  one. 
At  the  zero  hour  a  heavy  artillery  barrage 
will  come  down  on  the  German  trenches, 
but,  because  these  posts  we  are  tackling  are 
so  close  to  our  own,  the  artillery  will  not  be 
able  to  deal  with  them,  so  we  must  be  pre- 
pared for  a  fight.  It  is  most  important 
that  we  should  get  this  machine-gun  post, 
for  he  can  enfilade  the  other  parties  crossing 
the  open.' 

'  Do  we  start  in  as  soon  as  the  barrage 
comes  down,  sir  ?  '  asked  one  of  the  men. 

*  No,  we  wait  ten  minutes  and  go  forward 
at  the  same  time  as  the  other  parties.    Now, 
Pete  and  I  are  going  to  take  you  up  to  the 
front  line  to  show  you  where  these  posts 
are.     The  first  one  is  actually  in  a  British 
military  cemetery:  you  can  easily  see  the 
little  wooden  crosses.    Have  you  any  ques- 
tions you  want  to  ask  ?  9 

*  Yes,    sir,'    asked    one    serious-looking 
Canadian  soldier,  '  do  we  get  any  rum  be- 
fore the  show  starts?  '    They  all  clustered 
round  eagerly  to  hear  the  reply. 

'  No,  not  until  it  is  over ;  we  are  going  to 
assemble  within  twenty  jards  of  the  German 


172          SCOUTING  THBILLS 

post,  and  if  we  give  you  rum  some  of  you 
will  start  chattering  and  give  the  whole 
game  away. ' 

'  Hard  luck  if  we  go  under,'  murmured 
one  of  the  group. 

'  Never  mind  about  that ;  it  will  always 
be  a  drop  more  to  go  round,'  spoke  up  one 
cheery  youth. 

'  Now,  don't  forget  what  I  said  about 
speed — pile  right  in  on  top  of  them.' 

To  this  last  remark  was  added  a  pictur- 
esque emphasis  from  Pete. 

We  took  them  out  to  our  bombing-posts 
in  twos  and  pointed  out  to  them  the 
locations  of  the  two  posts. 

'  Now,  then,'  I  said  to  the  three  N.C.O.'s 
of  the  party,  '  remain  in  this  post  (our 
bombing-post)  for  a  few  minutes.  Pete 
and  I  are  going  out,  and  if  you  watch  us 
you  will  see  where  we  are  going  to  assemble, 
and  also  the  direction  to  go  to  get  right  on 
top  of  the  Huns.' 

We  were  both  anxious  to  see  in  daylight 
the  place  we  had  been  in  last  night.  We 
found  the  body  of  a  dead  German,  and  re- 
membered how  we  had  both  crawled  over 
him  the  night  before.  We  were  taking 
chances  to  be  out  there  in  daylight,  but 


WINNING  A  V.C.  173 

we  both  felt  it  was  worth  it.  This  place 
would  be  familiar  to  us  now  in  the  dark. 
We  crawled  up  towards  the  wire  in  front  of 
the  Hun  post,  but  were  soon  seen,  and  had 
to  scramble  back  quickly  out  of  range  of  the 
bombs  that  began  to  come  over. 

When  we  got  back  to  the  N.C.O.'s  I  re- 
marked to  the  sergeant  in  charge : 

*  Pete  will  go  back  with  you  and  tell  you 
anything  you  want  to  know;  he  will  also 
give  you  a  few  wrinkles  on  blacking  faces 
and  equipment.  Bring  a  party  to  head- 
quarters at  five  o'clock  to  draw  all  the 
equipment  and  extra  bombs  and  ammuni- 
tion that  we  shall  require.  Have  the  party 
in  the  front  line  by  eleven  o'clock,  and  I 
will  meet  you  there.'  Turning  to  Pete  I 
said,  '  Come  along  to  my  dug-out  at 
eight  o'clock,  Pete;  I'll  be  ready  by 
then.' 

Promptly  at  eight  o'clock  Pete  reported 
to  me,  his  face  literally  coal  black. 

6  How  on  earth  did  you  get  your  face  as 
black  as  that,  Pete  ?  '  I  asked. 

6  Burnt  cork,  sir;  nothing  finer.' 

6  Can  you  make  my  face  as  black  as  that  ? 
I  'm  afraid  mine  looks  very  patchy  at 
present.' 


174          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

In  a  few  minutes  Pete  had  made  me  look 
as  undesirable  as  himself. 

6  What  are  you  doing  with  the  two  haver- 
sacks? ' 

'  Bombs,  sir,  ten  in  each.' 

*  You  must  be  expecting  a  real  battle  to- 
night, Pete.' 

*  It  will  be  if  I  can  make  it  one,  sir. ' 

6  Well,  we  had  better  get  a  move  on,  Pete ; 
we  don't  want  to  keep  the  boys  waiting.' 

We  found  them  all  there  ready  and  wait- 
ing. I  checked  over  each  man's  equipment. 

*  You  take  the  first  two  men  out  to  that 
shell-hole,    Pete,    and   I  '11   bring   the   re- 
mainder out  to  you — two  at  a  time. ' 

Pete  at  once  started  out,  accompanied  by 
the  two  men,  and  a  few  minutes  later  I  took 
the  next  two  along.  It  was  slow  and  diffi- 
cult work.  After  passing  our  block  we 
crawled  on  our  stomachs  for  the  twenty 
yards  or  so  we  had  to  go.  We  were  then 
in  a  huge  shell-hole  only  a  few  feet  from  the 
German  wire.  The  last  three  men  I  took 
out  into  a  shell-hole  on  the  left  side  of  the 
communication  trench.  I  then  rejoined  the 
twelve  men  on  the  right  side,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  get  all  ready  for  shooting  the  rifle 
grenades.  It  was  ten  minutes  to  one  when 


WINNING  A  V.O.  175 

all  was  in  readiness,  and  I  crawled  over  to 
Pete  and  whispered : 

6  A  good  night  for  the  show,  Pete.'  (It 
was  not  too  dark  and  there  was  a  slight 
drizzle.) 

'  Yes,  sir ;  I  believe  we  shall  surprise 
them  to-night.  Shall  we  have  another  look 
at  the  fellow  who  fired  at  us  last  night  ?  ' 

1  Yes,  we  can  see  if  he  is  still  there. 9 

We  crawled  up  into  the  wire.  He  was 
there,  head  and  shoulders  showing  above 
the  outline  of  the  trench.  We  chuckled 
at  the  thought  of  the  surprise  he  was  going 
to  get,  when  apparently  he  heard  us  and 
fired;  but  not  at  us.  No  doubt  to  reassure 
himself,  I  thought.  I  laid  my  hand  on 
Pete's  arm,  the  signal  to  remain  perfectly 
still.  For  two  or  three  minutes  we  scarcely 
breathed,  and  then  quietly  wriggled  out  of 
the  wire  and  rejoined  our  party. 

A  perfect  stillness  reigned;  it  was  the 
time  when  the  activities  of  opposing  armies 
are  at  their  lowest.  But  for  an  occasional 
flare-light,  no  one  would  have  guessed  that 
legions  of  armed  men  were  facing  each 
other  across  that  narrow  strip  of  land  known 
as  No  Man's  Land.  It  was  chilly,  and  we 
shivered  a  little  with  the  cold.  The  boys 


176          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

lay  there  very  quiet — scarcely  breathing.  I 
looked  at  my  watch — it  was  time ! 

Suddenly  and  without  warning,  the  eerie 
menacing  stillness  was  violently  broken  with 
the  screaming  sounds  of  hundreds  of  shells. 
It  was  deafening,  tremendous!  Our  bom- 
bardment had  begun.  Shrapnel  was  burst- 
ing low  and  just  in  front  of  us;  we  could 
hear  the  whang  of  the  shrapnel  bullets  and 
the  deafening  roar  of  bursting  high  ex- 
plosives. Myriads  of  coloured  lights — all 
flashing  back  their  messages — were  sent  up 
from  the  enemy  lines,  illuminating  the  sky. 
To  the  uninitiated  it  was  terrifying,  nerve- 
racking.  I  knew  some  of  the  boys  were  new 
to  this  kind  of  thing  so  crawled  round 
amongst  them. 

'  Don't  worry,  boys,  it's  all  our  stuff.  It 
won't  half  put  the  wind  up  him;  he  '11  be 
scared  stiff  when  he  sees  us  piling  in  on 
top  of  him. ' 

I  then  went  over  to  Pete,  who  sat  on  the 
edge  of  the  shell-hole,  his  eyes  shining  in 
the  darkness  with  excitement,  his  fingers 
nervously  clasping  his  revolver. 

'  Is  it  time  yet,  sir?  '  he  whispered. 

'  Not  yet,  Pete,  another  couple  of 
minutes.' 


WINNING  A  V.C.  177 

At  last  the  luminous  figures  on  my  watch 
tell  me  the  time  is  up. 

'  All  right,  Pete,  get  ready.'  Then  turn- 
ing to  the  boys  behind,  I  called : 

'  Fire  your  rifle  grenades!  '  They  did. 
'  Come  on,  Pete,  I  'm  going  with  you  I 
Come  on,  boys!  '  I  shouted.  Pete  and  I 
sprang  up  together.  We  saw  them  lined 
up  waiting  for  us  as  we  stumbled  forward 
entangled  in  the  wire.  Suddenly  there 
were  several  blinding  explosions  at  our 
very  feet  and  the  wicked  rasping  noise  of 
the  machine  gun  in  front  of  us. 

Pete  clutched  my  arm  and  cried: 

'  I'm  hit,  sir,'  and  fell,  mortally  wounded. 
I  reached  down  and  grasped  his  hand. 

*  Hit  badly,  Pete,  boy?  '  But  he  did  not 
answer,  he  was  already  dead. 

All  about  me  there  was  a  succession  of 
blinding  explosions  and  men  were  crying 
out  in  pain.  That  mass  of  wire  on  each 
side  of  the  block  was  proving  to  be  an 
impenetrable  barrier.  I  ran  a  little  to  the 
right.  I  braced  myself  up,  ran  forward  and 
took  a  flying  leap  over  the  wire.  I  just 
cleared  it,  staggered  forward  a  few  steps, 
and  then  hurled  myself  head  first  on  top  of 
a  Hun  who  was  just  levelling  his  rifle  at  me. 


178  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

I  crashed  to  the  bottom  of  a  trench  seven 
feet  deep,  with  a  startled  Hun  underneath 
me.  In  crashing  into  the  Hun  my  steel 
helmet  came  down  bang  on  to  my  face,  and 
took  away  the  tip  of  my  nose.  At  the  same 
time  I  saw  myriads  of  dancing  lights.  The 
strap  of  my  helmet  had  been  at  the  back 
of  my  head,  so  the  helmet  was  now  dan- 
gling in  front  of  my  face.  I  lay  breathing 
heavily  with  my  right  elbow  sticking  in  the 
stomach  of  the  Hun  underneath  me,  who  lay 
gasping — for  I  had  knocked  the  wind 
clean  out  of  him.  I  still  retained  a  firm 
grip  on  my  revolver,  my  finger  on  the 
trigger.  I  peeped  over  the  rim  of  my 
dangling  steel  helmet  and  saw  the  figure 
of  a  big  Hun  gaily  advancing  upon  me,  the 
point  of  his  bayonet  about  two  feet  from 
my  throat.  I  promptly  pulled  the  trigger ; 
he  gave  a  gurgling  sound  and  sank  down  in 
a  heap,  his  rifle  and  bayonet  clattering  to 
the  bottom  of  the  trench.  The  man  under- 
neath me,  no  doubt  desperately  startled  by 
the  exploding  revolver,  violently  came  to 
life  and  started  throwing  his  arms  around. 
It  was  no  time  for  polite  argument,  so  I 
pressed  the  muzzle  of  my  revolver  into  him 
and  pulled  the  trigger.  I  scrambled  to  my 


WINNING  A  V.C.  179 

feet  and  adjusted  my  helmet  just  as  another 
Hun  came  rushing  along  towards  me.  I 
let  go  with  my  revolver;  he  gave  a  howl 
of  pain,  turned  around  and  ran.  Being  a 
great  believer  in  the  demoralising  effect  of 
noise  I  ran  yelling  after  him.  There  were 
quite  a  few  Huns  in  that  trench,  and  soon 
the  bombs  began  to  fly  about.  I  had  a 
couple  with  me  so  let  fly  with  mine.  More 
bombs  came  over;  and  I  had  to  back  up  a 
little  to  get  out  of  range.  I  was  beginning 
to  feel  a  little  lonely  and  worried — for  that 
machine  gun  was  still  firing — when  at  last 
one  of  my  men  came  up  to  me. 

4  Give  me  your  bombs,  quick,'  I  said, '  and 
go  back  for  some  more.' 

He  handed  me  three  bombs.  I  ran  for- 
ward and  threw  them,  forcing  the  Huns 
back  along  the  trench.  Back  they  came 
again,  following  the  bombs  with  a  mad  rush 
towards  me.  I  used  my  revolver  with  effect 
and  they  scampered  back  again,  just  as  the 
man  I  had  sent  came  rushing  up  with  bombs. 
I  grabbed  two — ran  forward  and  threw 
them,  following  close  up  with  my  revolver.  I 
ran  into  six  Huns,  shot  two  of  them,  when 
the  remainder  turned  round  and  threw  up 
their  hands.  A  few  yards  beyond  I  saw  them 


180  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

pulling  down  the  machine  gun.  I  called 
upon  the  man  behind  me  to  look  after  the 
prisoners,  pushed  my  way  past  them  in  time 
to  see  the  men  with  the  machine  gun  disap- 
pear into  a  dug-out.  I  called  back  for 
a  mobile  charge  and  waited.  It  was  two 
or  three  minutes  before  a  man  came 
staggering  along  with  one — pulled  the  pin 
and  threw  it  down  the  dug-out.  A  few 
seconds  later  the  air  was  filled  with  flying 
debris.  I  leave  to  the  imagination  what 
happened  to  the  Huns  and  the  machine 
gun.  Looking  back,  I  saw  the  red  flares — 
the  recall  signal — burning.  I  got  back  to 
find  that  Pete's  body  had  been  carried  into 
our  trench.  The  next  day,  and  for  two 
succeeding  days,  I  suffered  from  what  is 
popularly  known  as  '  a  stiff  neck,'  which 
will  explain  why  it  was  the  Hun  lay  winded 
underneath  me. 

Some  weeks  later  the  C.O.  sent  for  me. 

'  M'Kean,'  he  said,  '  I  wish  to  congratu- 
late you  heartily  on  being  awarded  the 
Victoria  Cross.' 

I  felt  rather  staggered  and  bewildered. 

'  Thank  you,  sir,'  I  replied — and  that  was 
all  I  could  say. 


THE   WARNING  WHISTLE 

WE  all  felt  it  was  the  beginning  of  the 
end,  though  none  of  us  guessed 
just  how  near  the  end  was.  After  participa- 
ting in  a  record  advance,  we  were  hustled 
north  to  deliver  another  of  those  '  hammer 
blows  '  that  brought  fame  and  final  victory 
to  the  British  Army.  We  were  not  lucky 
enough  to  get  in  at  the  beginning.  The 
show  had  been  going  a  full  twenty-four 
hours  before  the  shells  began  to  shake 
themselves  out  around  us,  and  we  were 
tired,  too,  with  long  night-marches  and 
very  little  rest  during  the  day-time.  The 
last  day  of  our  move  was  spent  in  train  and 
bus,  to  be  followed  by  another  night-march. 
Seeing  that  the  day's  train  journey  was  pre- 
ceded by  a  night-march,  this  combination  of 
activities  found  us  pretty  tired  at  the  end 
of  them  all. 

181 


182  SCOUTING  THEILLS 

Very  soon  after  daylight,  after  not  more 
than  three  hours'  sleep,  I  was  given  in- 
structions to  proceed  forward  with  my 
scouts  for  a  reconnaissance  of  the  area  we 
were  to  move  up  to  that  night.  It  was 
ground  captured  only  the  previous  day. 
When  we  arrived  there  we  were  well  on  the 
fringe  of  the  battle  raging  in  front  of  us. 
The  long  string  of  ambulances  and  walking 
wounded  testified  to  the  severity  of  the 
fight;  and  the  columns  of  bedraggled 
though  smiling  and  happy  prisoners  also 
testified  to  the  success  we  had  gained. 

We  found  the  area  allotted  to  us,  and 
studied  the  best  route,  having  respect  both 
to  its  shortness  and  safety  (for  the  shortest 
way  was  very  seldom  the  safest).  With 
seven  or  eight  hundred  men  to  bring  along 
we  had  to  give  a  good  deal  of  thought  to  the 
route  to  be  used. 

We  arrived  back  only  in  time  to  get  a  bite 
to  eat  and  start  off  again  as  guides.  It  was 
dark  and  raining,  and  all  the  routes  were 
jammed  with  traffic — ammunition  columns 
dashing  up  with  shells  for  the  guns;  more 
guns  going  forward;  engineers  and  in- 
fantry all  packed  in  along  the  roads.  With 
motor  lorries,  ambulances,  empty  ammuni- 


THE  WARNING  WHISTLE     183 

tion  wagons,  all  coming  back,  it  was  really 
marvellous  how  anybody  ever  got  any- 
where. The  rain  came  down  pitilessly. 
Our  accommodation  in  the  trenches  was 
very  limited,  and  more  than  half  of  the 
boys  had  no  shelter  from  the  rain. 

Early  the  following  morning  the  C.O.  sent 
for  me. 

'  We  are  expecting  to  go  into  the  line  to- 
night, M'Kean.  You  had  better  take  a 
couple  of  your  scouts  and  go  forward  to  the 
headquarters  of  the  brigade  in  the  line. 
They  may  be  able  to  give  you  some  in- 
formation about  the  relief.  Here  is  a  new 
map  that  has  just  arrived;  you  can  take  this 
with  you  and  mark  on  it  any  information 
you  can  get  up  there. ' 

I  got  two  scouts  and  went  up  forward. 
They  were  shelling  heavily  all  the  routes  of 
approach,  for  most  of  them  were  jammed 
with  guns  galloping  forward  to  new  posi- 
tions. Arrived  at  brigade  headquarters,  I 
found  a  small  dug-out  crammed  full  of 
people  on  the  same  job  as  myself,  the  quest 
for  information.  I  squeezed  myself  in  and 
had  the  good  fortune  to  catch  the  eye  of  the 
brigade-major. 

6  Come  on  in,  M'Kean,'  he  called  out. 


184  SCOUTING  THKILLS 

I  went  forward  very  willingly. 

6  Now,  what  is  it  you  want  to  know?  ' 

I  explained. 

6  Yes,  we  have  had  notification  that  your 
brigade  will  relieve  us  to-night,  but  we 
cannot  give  you  any  information  regarding 
the  probable  positions  of  the  battalions,  for 
we  are  attacking  at  12.30  to-day.'  (It  was 
then  just  after  eleven).  t  If  all  the  objec- 
tives are  gained  at  the  stated  time  we  shall 
have  pretty  complete  information  for  you. 
The  best  thing  you  can  do,  though,  is  to  wait 
here  and  see  how  things  go. ' 

So  I  waited.  I  looked  outside  and  saw  the 
artillery  galloping  up  and  getting  into  po- 
sition for  putting  over  the  barrage  for 
the  attack  at  12.30.  Ammunition  was  also 
being  rushed  up  to  the  guns.  In  brigade 
headquarters  everything  was  bustle  and 
hurry.  Promptly  at  12.30  every  gun  around 
the  place  opened  up  with  a  bang.  About 
two  thousand  yards  ahead  we  could  see  the 
white  puffs  of  the  exploding  shrapnel. 
From  the  little  hillock  we  stood  on  we  could 
also  see  our  infantry  climb  out  of  the  trench 
and  go  forward — being  lost  to  view  in  the 
smoke  of  the  Hun  barrage.  The  battle  was 
on!  Around  us  the  gunners  worked  fever- 


THE  WARNING  WHISTLE     185 

ishly  to  feed  the  smoking  guns.  In  brigade 
headquarters  there  was  tense  excitement 
and  much  speculation.  The  Hun  was  stub- 
bornly resisting  at  this  point,  and  scores  of 
machine  guns  swept  the  ground  over  which 
our  men  had  to  advance.  Conflicting  re- 
ports from  observers  began  to  arrive,  at 
one  moment  raising  our  hopes  high,  at  the 
next  dashing  them  to  the  ground.  At  three 
o'clock  no  authentic  news  of  the  progress  of 
the  attack  had  arrived.  I  could  not  wait 
any  longer.  The  battalion  was  nearly  four 
miles  away,  and  I  must  get  back  to  it,  for 
it  had  to  be  brought  up  that  night  to  relieve 
the  attacking  battalions. 

When  the  head  of  the  battalion  arrived  at 
brigade  headquarters,  one  hour  before 
midnight,  information  from  the  front  line 
was  both  scanty  and  contradictory.  There 
had  been  heavy  fighting  and  severe  casual- 
ties; one  battalion  had  lost  all  its  officers 
excepting  the  medical  officer,  and  he  was  in 
command  of  the  battalion.  Messages 
had  been  sent  out  to  the  attacking  battalions 
asking  them  to  have  guides  report  to  take 
in  the  relief,  but  at  midnight  no  guides  had 
arrived.  The  C.O.  decided  to  go  forward. 

Somewhere  in  front  of  the  village  we 


186  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

would  pass  through  we  expected  to  find 
what  remained  of  the  attacking  battalions. 
With  scouts  in  front,  the  battalion  moved 
off  in  quest  of  the  units  it  was  to  relieve. 
In  less  than  an  hour  we  came  to  the  support- 
ing battalion,  the  officers  of  which,  as  far 
as  their  information  went,  believed  them- 
selves to  be  in  the  front  line.  Upon  in- 
quiring for  the  whereabouts  of  the  two 
battalions  we  were  to  relieve,  we  were 
informed  that  all  they  knew  about  them 
was  that  they  had  attacked  that  afternoon 
and  that  nothing  had  been  heard  of  them 
since.  It  seemed  inconceivable  that  two 
whole  battalions  had  been  literally  wiped 
out.  Some  one  must  be  out  there  in  front. 
The  C.O.  gave  orders  for  us  to  relieve  this 
battalion.  When  this  was  completed  I  got 
hold  of  the  scout  corporal,  and  we  started 
off  in  search  of  the  missing  battalions. 
After  stumbling  around  in  the  darkness  for 
half-an-hour  we  found  three  men  in  a  shell- 
hole  roughly  organised  for  defence.  Two 
belonged  to  one  of  the  units  we  were  to  re- 
lieve and  one  to  the  other  unit. 

'  What  has  happened,  boys,  that  you  are 
separated  from  your  battalions,'  I  asked. 

i  The  machine-gun  fire  was  so  bad,  sir,' 


THE  WAKNING  WHISTLE     187 

one  of  them  answered,  '  that  we  were 
forced  back,  and  all  our  officers  have  been 
killed  or  wounded. ' 

'  Where  are  the  rest  of  your  battalions  ?  ' 
6  Scattered  around  in  shell-holes,  sir.' 

'  I  suppose  you  've  had  a  lot  of  casualties  V 

'  Yes,  sir,  there  are  not  many  of  us  left.' 

'  Well,  you  can  wait  here.  As  soon  as 
we  find  the  whereabouts  of  the  remainder 
of  your  battalions  we  '11  bring  some  men 
along  to  relieve  you. ' 

This  last  piece  of  information  seemed  to 
give  great  satisfaction,  and  they  readily 
indicated  the  direction  where  we  might  find 
the  survivors  of  the  battle.  And  so  we 
continued  our  search,  finding  a  couple  of 
men  in  one  shell-hole  and  half  a  dozen  in 
another. 

I  went  back  to  our  reserve  company,  ex- 
plained the  matter  to  the  company  com- 
mander, and  he  agreed  to  bring  his  company 
forward  to  relieve  the  men  out  in  front. 

It  was  almost  daylight  before  this  was 
completed.  When  daylight  came  it  was 
found  that  our  left  flank  was  '  up  in  the 
air  ' — in  other  words  we  were  not  in  touch 
with  the  battalion  on  our  left,  which  left  a 
gap  (how  wide  we  could  not  tell)  between  us. 


188  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

I  started  out  alone  to  find  the  where- 
abouts of  this  battalion.  After  many 
narrow  escapes  from  being  '  winged,'  due 
to  the  attentions  of  Boche  snipers,  and  also 
after  travelling  almost  eight  hundred  yards, 
I  finally  '  made  connection.'  Now  that 
the  gap  was  known  to  both  battalions  we 
could  arrange  to  have  it  looked  after.  The 
problem  now  was — how  far  away  was  the 
Boche  ?  Once  again  it  was  the  work  of  the 
scouts  to  find  out,  so,  losing  no  time,  I  took 
a  scout  with  me  and  started  off  in  the 
direction  of  the  Boche  line.  An  old 
trench  ran  out  in  this  direction,  and  we 
went  out  along  this.  It  was  shallow  and 
we  always  had  a  good  view  on  both  sides 
of  it.  We  expected  to  go  two  or  three 
hundred  yards  before  encountering  any 
Boche,  but  this  distance  was  passed  and 
we  had  gone  quite  six  hundred  yards  be- 
fore a  single  rifle  shot  rang  out  from  a  point 
about  three  hundred  yards  in  front  of  us. 

'  Well,'  I  remarked  to  the  scout,  '  I  don't 
see  the  sense  of  us  holding  a  line  nearly 
a  thousand  yards  from  the  Boche.  If  we 
don't  push  forward  he  soon  will,  at  least  as 
soon  as  he  finds  out  how  far  we  are  away 
from  him.' 


THE  WARNING  WHISTLE    189 

Just  then  we  were  attracted  by  a  loud 
whirring  noise  overhead,  and  a  camouflaged 
aeroplane  with  the  markings  of  the  Maltese 
cross  on  it  swooped  down  to  within  a  hun- 
dred feet  of  us.  It  was  a  German  single- 
seater  scout.  The  pilot  looked  out  over  the 
side,  circled  round  once,  and  then  headed 
off  in  the  direction  of  Hun-land. 

'  There  he  goes,'  I  said;  *  he  's  seen  us 
and  thinks  we  are  holding  this  ground.  I 
don't  see  why  we  shouldn't  be  holding  it,  do 
you?  ' 

'  No,  sir;  it  will  make  a  good  jumping-off 
place  for  the  next  attack. ' 

'  Yes,  exactly.  I  think  we  had  better  hurry 
back  now  and  recommend  pushing  out 
some  outposts  to  hold  the  ground.' 

So  we  returned  to  headquarters  and  re- 
ported the  situation.  The  C.O.  sent  in- 
structions to  the  forward  companies  to 
push  out  outposts,  and  in  this  way  our  line 
was  advanced  six  hundred  yards  without  a 
casualty ! 

In  the  afternoon  we  received  information 
that  the  British  troops  on  our  right  were 
going  to  attack  to  clear  out  a  village  and 
seize  some  high  ground.  We  were  also  in- 
formed that  one  of  our  brigades  would 


190  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

attack  through  us  at  daybreak  on  the 
following  day,  assembling  for  the  attack 
at  our  newly-established  outpost  line. 

About  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  a 
heavy  bombardment  on  our  right  brought 
us  up  out  of  our  dug-out  to  watch  the 
progress  of  the  attack  on  our  right.  The 
village  to  be  attacked  was  simply  smothered 
with  shells.  It  was  two  or  three  hours  later 
that  we  heard  of  the  complete  success 
of  the  operation.  The  attack  had  been 
pushed  home  and  an  advance  made  be- 
yond the  objectives,  thus  leaving  the  Huns 
in  front  of  us  in  a  narrow  and  dangerous 
salient. 

'  Would  the  Huns  wait  for  our  attack?  ' 
was  the  question  worrying  the  staff.  It 
seemed  feasible  that  they  would  not.  If 
not,  then  an  attack  on  the  grand  scale 
would  be  a  mistake.  If  they  had  evacuated 
the  trenches  they  were  holding  then  we 
could  quietly  take  possession  of  them  and 
so  avoid  a  useless  expenditure  of  ammuni- 
tion, and,  possibly,  many  precious  human 
lives.  Now,  who  was  to  find  out  if  the  Hun 
was  still  holding  on? — the  scout,  of  course 
— so  it  came  as  no  surprise  to  us  when  about 
eleven  o'clock  that  night  instructions  came 


THE  WARNING  WHISTLE     191 

to  '  send  out  scouts  to  ascertain  if  the 
enemy  is  still  holding  the  trenches  (naming 
them)  opposite  you.' 

Another  prospective  night's  rest  vanished. 
A  few  minutes  after  receiving  this  message 
I  was  out,  in  the  blackest  night  imaginable, 
on  my  way  to  interview  the  Huns,  with  five 
scouts  stumbling  along  after  me.  Our 
progress  forward  was  helped  considerably 
by  the  fitful  glare  from  a  burning  village 
behind  the  Hun  lines.  Occasionally  it 
flared  up,  showing  up  objects  around  us 
with  startling  and  disturbing  distinctness. 
We  reached  the  line  of  our  deserted  out- 
posts, which  had  been  withdrawn  so  as  not 
to  interfere  with  the  assembling  of  the 
attacking  battalions.  A  shallow  trench  ran 
out  in  the  direction  of  the  Hun  lines.  Re- 
volver in  hand,  I  led  the  way  along  the 
trench.  The  dull  red  glow  of  the  burning 
village  acted  as  our  guide.  Prom  what  we 
had  seen  in  our  daylight  patrol  I  knew  that 
the  Hun,  if  he  was  still  holding  on,  was 
somewhere  not  very  far  in  front  of  us. 
Wherever  he  was,  we  must  startle  him  into 
life :  it  was  the  old  business  of  making  con- 
tact. Cautiously  and  with  every  sense 
keenly  alert,  I  pushed  along  the  shallow 


192  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

trench  followed  by  four  faithful  fighting 
scouts.  The  trench,  after  about  two  hun- 
dred yards,  became  deeper  and  showed 
signs  of  recent  use.  This  was  significant. 
Then  the  glare  from  the  burning  village 
died  away  and  we  were  left  to  grope  our 
way  along  in  the  black  darkness.  So  dark 
was  it  that  I  had  to  feel  my  way  forward 
along  the  side  of  the  trench.  There  was  no 
sound  save  the  occasional  shriek  and  whine 
of  a  shell  passing  overhead.  Then  some- 
thing seemed  to  hit  my  knees  and  I  fell 
headlong  into  the  trench.  I  was  upon  my 
feet  instantly;  but  only  just  in  time  to 
prevent  a  scout  from  following  headlong 
after  me.  Stretched  tightly  across  the 
trench  were  two  plain  wires,  the  first  about 
twelve  inches  from  the  bottom  of  the  trench 
and  the  second  about  nine  inches  above  the 
first. 

6  Step  over  the  wires,'  I  whispered  back. 

I  now  went  forward  feeling  with  both 
hands  and  feet.  About  ten  yards  further 
along  I  came  to  another  plain  single  wire 
about  three  feet  from  the  bottom  of  the 
trench. 

6  Get  underneath  the  wire,'  I  whispered 
to  the  scout  behind  me. 


THE  WARNING  WHISTLE      193 

Another  ten  yards  and  I  ran  into  two 
more  wires,  one  about  two  feet  from  the  bot- 
tom of  the  trench  and  the  other  a  foot  above 
it.  We  safely  negotiated  these  and  con- 
tinued along  the  trench  for  a  few  more 
yards.  I  stopped  suddenly.  I  could  have 
sworn  I  heard  a  faint  whistle.  I  listened 
intently  for  a  few  minutes  but  no  other 
sound  reached  me.  A  few  more  yards  and 
again  a  whistle — a  little  more  distinct  this 
time.  I  turned  to  the  scout  behind  me. 

*  Did  you  hear  that  ?  9 1  asked. 

*  Yes,  sir,  somebody  whistled.' 

'  So  I  thought.    Did  you  hear  it  before  ?  ' 

*  Yes,  a  few  minutes  ago  I  thought  I 
heard  it.' 

I  went  silently  and  cautiously  forward  a 
few  more  yards,  having,  owing  to  the  in- 
tense darkness,  to  feel  my  way  along.  I 
had  the  misfortune  to  touch  some  loose 
earth  on  the  side  of  the  trench.  It  only 
made  a  very  slight  noise,  but  promptly  that 
warning  whistle — much  more  distinct  and 
closer — rang  out  again.  Just  then  flames 
burst  forth  from  the  smouldering  village, 
and  I  saw  clearly  outlined  in  front  of  me  a 
huge  mound  of  earth. 

'  Wait  here,'  I  whispered  back,  and  then, 


194          SCOUTING  THKILLS 

crouching  close  to  the  side  of  the  trench, 
I  moved  along  until  this  mound  towered 
above  me.  Another  huge  flame  shot  up 
from  the  village.  I  remained  there,  statu- 
esque. Then  that  whistle  again,  loud,  clear, 
and  distinct — sounding  almost  at  my  elbow. 
Breathless,  I  waited  for  something  to 
happen.  There  was  a  blinding  flash  a  few 
yards  from  my  face  and  a  flare  light  shot 
up ;  it  broke,  throwing  a  bright  white  light 
over  everything.  I  remained  standing,  but 
with  an  almost  overpowering  desire  to  turn 
and  run.  It  seemed  an  eternity  before  I 
was  once  again  enshrouded  in  darkness. 
I  quietly  withdrew  until  I  rejoined  the 
scouts. 

6  A  few  more  yards,'  I  said,  '  and  I  would 
have  walked  on  top  of  them.  They  must 
be  blind  if  they  didn't  see  me.  I  'm  a  bit 
suspicious  of  them.  We  '11  have  to  go  back 
just  as  carefully  as  we  came  out.' 

So,  passing  the  scouts,  I  led  the  way  back. 
It  was  nearly  two  o'clock  when  I  got  back 
to  headquarters.  I  immediately  wired  the 
result  of  my  patrol  to  brigade,  using,  of 
course,  the  camouflage  language  which  the 
circumstances  demanded. 

The  attack  would  be  proceeded  with  at 


THE  WARNING  WHISTLE     195 

4.40  that  morning.  I  was  curious  about  the 
defenders  of  that  mound  and  was  not  at  all 
loath  to  carry  out  the  instructions  I  re- 
ceived about  seven  o'clock  that  morning  to 
proceed  ahead  of  a  company  sent  up  to 
support  the  attacking  battalion. 

The  going  forward  was  not  to  be  without 
incident,  for  no  sooner  had  I  started  ahead 
with  my  scouts  than  a  swarm  of  Fokkers, 
not  less  than  twenty-five  in  number,  came 
circling  overhead.  They  opened  up  with 
their  machine  guns  and  the  noise  was 
terrific.  Bullets  began  to  patter  around 
us,  but  we  plodded  steadily  ahead  across  the 
open,  not  a  man  being  hit.  We  at  last 
reached  the  protection  of  the  trench  where 
we  had  to  remain  to  await  further  orders. 
In  crossing  over  I  had  noticed  the  mound 
of  my  previous  adventure.  It  was  now  a 
few  yards  behind  the  trench  we  were  in.  I 
moved  over  towards  it.  Around  it  were  the 
evidences  of  a  fierce  fight — I  counted  twelve 
dead  Huns,  including  an  officer.  Just  then 
a  sergeant  of  the  attacking  battalion  came 
came  along. 

*  Looks  as  if  you  met  with  opposition  here, 
sergeant,'  I  remarked. 

'  We  certainly  did,  sir ;  my  platoon  lost 


196  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

eighteen  good  men  taking  this  nest  here. 
We  captured  eight  machine  guns  and  eigh- 
teen prisoners,  besides  what  you  see  lying 
around  dead,  sir/ 

So  these  were  the  people  who  had  almost 
had  me  as  a  visitor  a  few  hours  before.  I  'm 
afraid  if  there  had  been  any  argument  they 
would  almost  have  had  the  best  of  it ! 


XI 

A  BAYONET  CHARGE 

rPHE  incident  of  this  story  follows  quickly 
-••      upon  the  episode  of  *  The  Warning 
Whistle.' 

At  this  time  each  day  was  so  crowded  with 
excitement  and  activity  that  it  is  difficult  to 
select  any  particular  incident  which  stands 
out  strikingly  above  all  others.  They  were 
days  of  hurried  movement  and  ceaseless 
activity;  attacks  were  conceived  and 
launched  successfully  in  the  space  of  a  few 
hours.  The  thorough  and  methodical 
gathering  in  of  information,  which  gave 
such  scope  and  variety  to  the  activities  of 
the  scout,  was  abandoned.  Attack  followed 
upon  attack  with  breathless  rapidity ;  every 
success  was  exploited  to  the  utmost,  and 
every  local  reverse  was  speedily  overcome 
by  the  immediate  launching  of  a  new  and 
successful  attack. 

197 


198  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

We  were  for  ever  on  the  move,  and  as 
all  movement  of  bodies  of  troops  was 
carried  out  in  the  night,  it  was  the  work 
of  the  scouts  to  '  spy  out  the  land  '  in  the 
daytime,  and  to  guide  the  troops  forward 
in  the  night.  The  word  '  relief  '  had  become 
a  nightmare  to  us,  and  it  gave  me  no 
particular  emotions  of  joy  and  pleasure 
when  the  C.O.  sent  for  me  and  informed  me 
that  there  would  be  a  relief  that  night;  I 
was  to  report  to  X  headquarters  to  arrange 
details  and  take  my  scouts  forward  to  re- 
connoitre routes.  It  was  a  dirty  business, 
for  the  forward  area  was  being  heavily 
shelled,  and  before  we  returned  two  of  my 
scouts  were  wounded,  one  of  them  rather 
badly. 

I  reported  to  X  headquarters  and  found  a 
colonel  in  charge  of  the  relief  arrange- 
ments. 

'  Now,  my  boy,'  he  said,  '  you  will  find 
things  rather  mixed  up,  and  your  unit  will 
have  to  relieve  elements  of  three  battalions. 
There  was  severe  fighting  this  morning,  and 
we  have  not  yet  got  complete  information 
of  the  exact  whereabouts  of  all  units. ' 

Things  were  mixed  up,  and  the  prospects 
of  a  smooth  and  speedy  relief  looked  very 


A  BAYONET  CHAKGE          199 

remote.  However,  on  paper,  things  looked 
fair,  and  with  a  bit  of  luck  we  might  pull 
through  successfully.  I  felt  slightly  opti- 
mistic when  I  returned  to  headquarters.  I 
was,  however,  quite  unprepared  for  the 
drastic  alterations  in  the  arrangements. 

'  More  alterations,  M'Kean,'  the  C.O.  in- 
formed me  as  soon  as  I  reported ;  '  only 
one  company  will  go  into  the  front  line 
instead  of  the  two  you  have  already 
arranged  for.' 

'  But  what  about  the  other  one,  sir? 
I  have  already  arranged  for  guides  to  meet 
them.' 

'  Oh,  you  '11  have  to  find  a  place  for  them 
to-night;  put  them  a  few  yards  behind  the 
front  line  company.  In  any  case  they  will 
have  to  go  up  in  support,  for  we  are  attack- 
ing at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning.' 

'  Attacking  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
sir!  ' 

'  Yes,  a  local  attack  to  establish  a  '  jump- 
ing-off  '  place  for  the  big  attack  on  the  fol- 
lowing day.' 

The  C.O.  then  pointed  out  to  me  on  a  map 
the  plan  for  the  attack.  The  Huns 
were  stubbornly  holding  on  to  a  high 
dominating  hillock  known  as  the  '  Crows' 


200          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

Nest.'    This  was  to  be  cleared,  and  the  at- 
tack pushed  beyond  it. 

'  What  about  our  arrangements  for  to- 
night, sir?    It  is  too  late  to  alter  them 


now.' 


6  You  '11  have  to  go  ahead  yourself, 
M'Kean,  and  get  them  in  the  best  way  you 
can.  We  must  be  in  position  to  attack 
before  five  o'clock.' 

It  promised  to  be  a  most  interesting  night. 
Shortly  before  midnight  I  arrived  at  the 
rendezvous  where  the  guides  from  the  front 
line  battalions  were  to  meet  us — the  junction 
of  a  road  and  trench.  The  guides  were  to 
be  there  at  eleven  o'clock,  but  none  were  in 
sight  when  I  arrived.  At  any  moment  I 
expected  to  see  the  first  company  of  our 
battalion  arrive,  and  I  had  but  the  vaguest 
idea  of  where  they  had  to  go.  Who  would 
arrive  first,  the  guides  or  the  battalion? 
To  keep  a  battalion  on  that  road  was  to  ask 
for  casualties,  for  already  the  road  had  been 
heavily  shelled.  But  the  guides  appeared 
first — about  half  an  hour  after  midnight. 
I  found  the  officer  in  charge  of  the 
guides. 

6  How  long  will  it  take  to  get  to  the  front 
line  from  here  ?  '  I  asked. 


A  BAYONET  CHABGE         201 

'  Not  less  than  an  hour.' 

*  The  arrangements  have  been  changed, 
and  only  one  company  goes  into  the  line. ' 

6  Where  does  the  other  company  go  ?  ' 
'  They  '11  have  to  get  into  shell-holes  be- 
hind the  front  line;  we  are  attacking  at 
five  o'clock.' 

'Attacking!  well,  you've  certainly  got 
to  hustle  to  get  into  position. ' 

*  I  know  we  have ;  the  only  thing  for  it 
is  for  the  second  company  to  keep  touch  with 
the  first.' 

'  Yes,  that 's  what  you  '11  have  to  do.' 
The  prospect  of  two  companies,  in  single 
file,  having  to  keep  in  touch,  was  a  most 
distressing  one.  One  o'clock  arrived  and 
still  no  sign  of  the  battalion.  Just  then  a 
salvo  of  shells  came  bouncing  around  us 
and  we  had  to  scuttle  for  cover.  It  was 
exactly  1.45  A.M.  before  the  head  of  the 
battalion  arrived  at  the  rendezvous.  The 
guides  joined  them,  and  they  continued  on 
to  the  front  line.  The  second  company 
followed  closely  behind.  I  saw  the  com- 
pany commander. 

'  You  '11  have  to  keep  touch  with  the  com- 
pany in  front;  there  are  no  guides  for 
you.' 


202         SCOUTING  THEILLS 

'  All  right,  Mac,  we  '11  see  to  that.' 

I  then  hurried  on  to  the  head  of  the 
battalion  and  came  up  alongside  of  the 
company  commander. 

6  Did  you  see  the  runners,  Pat,  with  the 
operation  orders  for  the  attack  ?  '  I  asked. 

*  No,  we  didn't  see  them.' 

'  That  's  unfortunate,  for  they  are  not 
likely  to  arrive  in  time  now ;  they  've 
missed  you,  I  guess.  Did  you  hear  the 
news?  ' 

'  I  heard  that  we  are  attacking  at  five 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  Do  you  know  any 
of  the  details?  ' 

' 1  have  a  general  idea.  We  advance 
about  fifteen  hundred  yards  and  dig  in. 
It  is  a  creeping  barrage,  but  I  don't  know 
how  fast  it  moves — about  one  hundred 
yards  in  three  minutes,  I  should  think. 
Just  as  soon  as  the  barrage  drops  down  we 
hop  over.' 

Just  then  our  conversation  was  inter- 
rupted by  the  cry,  '  lost  connection  in  the 
rear.' 

The  company  commander  halted  and 
called  back,  '  Pass  the  word  when  every- 
body is  closed  up.'  We  resumed  our  con- 
versation. 


A  BAYONET  CHARGE          203 

'  Have  you  any  idea  of  the  direction  we 
go,  Mac  ?  '  asked  Pat. 

'  Roughly  due  east,'  I  answered.  '  We 
skirt  along  on  the  north  side  of  the  Crows' 
Nest  and,  as  far  as  I  can  remember,  we  cross 
two  trenches  which  the  Hun  is  holding. ' 

'  I  suppose  this  is  only  a  kind  of  local 
attack?  ' 

*  Yes,  the  Crows'  Nest  has  changed  hands 
twice  already.  This  time  we  intend  to  go 
well  beyond  it  to  establish  a  jumping-off 
place.' 

Just  then  the  word  was  passed  along. 
*  All  closed  up,'  so  we  moved  forward  again. 
It  was  a  rough,  slow  journey.  In  places 
the  trench  was  blown  in  and  we  had  to 
climb  out  and  back  in  again.  Then  we 
came  to  a  road  running  through  the  trench. 
The  guide  halted. 

6  A  machine  gun  sweeps  this  road,  sir,'  he 
said  to  the  company  commander,  '  we  must 
hurry  across.' 

'  All  right,'  answered  the  company  com- 
mander, '  lead  on.'  Then  he  turned  to  the 
man  behind  him,  '  Pass  the  word  back  to 
hurry  across  the  road. ' 

The  next  obstacle  was  an  old  shelter  in 
the  trench.  We  had  to  climb  first  of  all 


204          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

through  a  window  and  then  out  through  a 
door  in  the  other  end.  Lightly  equipped 
as  we  were,  it  was  no  easy  job  to  get  through 
that  window;  for  the  men  it  was  almost 
impossible.  After  getting  through  we  went 
forward  some  distance  and  halted.  I  looked 
at  my  watch.  It  was  three  o'clock. 

'  I  say,  Pat,  we  've  got  to  do  a  big  hustle 
to  get  that  relief  completed  and  in  position 
by  five  o  'clock !  ' 

6  Yes,  we  have,  Mac,  but  we  can't  go 
ahead  and  leave  half  of  the  men  behind.' 

We  moved  forward  again  and  at  last 
reached  the  front  line. 

'  Wait  here,'  said  the  guide,  *  and  I  '11 
bring  our  company  commander  along. ' 

He  returned  soon  afterwards,  bringing  the 
company  commander  with  him. 

'  Glad  you  have  arrived,'  said  the  com- 
pany commander ;  i  we  '11  be  darned  glad 
to  get  out.  Just  let  your  men  lead  on.  I 
have  a  sergeant  here  who  will  go  ahead. 
Come  round  here  and  I  '11  tell  you  all  I  know 
about  things.'  We  followed  him.  '  I  sup- 
pose you  know  we  are  attacking  at  five 
o'clock?  '  I  inquired. 

'  No !  that  's  the  first  I  Ve  heard  about  it. 
We  attacked  up  here  yesterday.' 


A  BAYONET  CHAEGE          205 

'  Did  the  Boche  put  up  a  fight?  ' 

*  Not  much  of  a  one  here :  we  cleared  the 
whole  of  this  trench  out,  took  sixty  prisoners 
and  only  had  three  casualties. ' 

'  Well,  that  sounds  cheering  anyway.' 

6  We  've  just  taken  six  prisoners,'  con- 
tinued the  company  commander.  '  A  party 
of  them  came  out  to  establish  a  post ;  one 
of  my  officers  saw  them,  took  a  few  men 
with  him  and  attacked  them.  They  killed 
three,  took  six  prisoners,  and  the  rest  of 
the  crowd  scattered.  The  prisoners  haven't 
come  along  yet,  but  they  should  be  here 
soon.  We  '11  detain  a  couple  of  them  and 
question  them;  we  might  get  some  useful 
information  for  you  fellows. ' 

'  Thanks,'  said  Pat.  '  Could  you  point 
out  the  Crows'  Nest  from  here ?  ' 

'  Sure,  easily,'  replied  the  company  com- 
mander. '  Do  you  see  where  those  '  heavies  ' 
have  just  landed?  ' 

6  Yes,  over  to  the  right,'  said  Pat. 

'  Well,  that 's  the  Crows'  Nest;  they  Ve 
simply  smothered  that  place  to-night;  been 
dropping  "  heavies  "  into  it  for  the  last 
five  or  six  hours.  I  don't  think  there  '11 
be  any  one  left  alive  over  there  to  give  you 
any  trouble.' 


206  SCOUTING  THEILLS 

A  few  minutes  later  two  prisoners  arrived, 
one  wounded,  who  was  being  carried  on  the 
back  of  the  unwounded  prisoner.  They 
both  were  mere  boys.  They  were  Alsa- 
tians and  spoke  French. 

'  I  have  a  sergeant  here,  a  French- 
Canadian,  who  speaks  French,'  said  Pat; 
'  he  '11  ask  him  all  the  questions  we  wish  to 
have  answered.' 

*  Righto,'  said  the  company  commander, 
'  ask  him  first  of  all  what  division  he  belongs 
to,  and  how  old  he  is  ?  ' 

The  sergeant  put  these  questions  to  the 
unwounded  prisoner. 

6  The  123rd  Division,  sir;  he  is  eighteen 
years  of  age. ' 

'  Does  he  like  the  Germans  ?  ' 

i  No,  sir,  he  hates  them,  and  says  he  's  glad 
he  's  a  prisoner.  He  says  the  Germans  hate 
the  Alsatians. ' 

'  How  long  has  he  been  in  the  German 
army?  ' 

6  Six  months,  sir.' 

6  What  were  they  doing  out  there  to-night 
when  we  attacked  them  ?  ' 

'  They  came  out  under  an  officer  to  estab- 
lish an  outpost,  sir;  they  didn't  know  that 
we  were  so  close  to  them.' 


A  BAYONET  CHARGE          207 

*  Are  they  expecting  an  attack  ?  ' 

6  Yes,  sir,  he  says  they  're  always  expect- 
ing an  attack  now.  He  also  says  that  they 
received  orders  to  attack  us  at  eleven  o'clock 
last  night,  but  the  order  was  cancelled,  as 
they  had  no  bombs,  and  very  little  ammuni- 
tion. ' 

'  Are  they  getting  enough  to  eat?  ' 
'  No,  sir,  he  says  that  they  've  had  no 
rations  or  water  for  two  days.  The  ration 
parties  go  out  but  never  return.  Our  shell- 
ing of  the  back  areas  is  causing  heavy 
casualties  and  they  are  unable  to  get  up 
supplies. ' 

*  Have  they  been  having  many  casualties  ? ' 
'  Yes,  sir,  he  says  his  company  have  been 

in  the  line  three  days  and  have  lost  eighty 
men  out  of  one  hundred  and  ten.' 

The  company  commander  turned  to  Pat : 
' 1  think  that 's  about  all  we  want  to  know. 
Is  there  anything  else  you  would  like  to  ask 
him?' 

'  Yes ;  ask  him  if  the  two  trenches 
opposite  are  heavily  manned.' 

'  Yes,  sir,'  said  the  sergeant, '  he  says  they 
have  quite  a  lot  of  machine  guns  in  them.' 

'  All  right,'  said  Pat,  i  I'm  satisfied  with 
that  information.' 


208          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

The  two  prisoners  then  continued  their 
way  out.  The  company  that  had  been  re- 
lieved started  to  file  past  us.  Our  second 
company  then  came  along,  went  along  the 
front  line,  then  climbed  out  of  the  trench 
and  went  back  a  few  yards  into  shell-holes. 
Pat  and  myself  then  went  along  the  front 
line. 

'  Can  you  give  me  a  job,  Pat?  '  I  asked, 
*  for  I  intended  to  go  over  in  some  capacity 
or  other. ' 

*  All  right,  Mac ;  one  of  my  platoons  hasn't 
an  officer,  and  I  'd  be  glad  if  you  would 
take  it  over. ' 

'  Righto,  lead  me  to  it.  By  the  way,  we 
haven't  much  time  to  waste,  Pat;  it 's  4.30 
now — only  half  an  hour  before  we  go  over. ' 

I  found  the  platoon  sergeant  of  the 
platoon  I  was  attached  to. 

'  Take  me  round  amongst  the  boys  in  the 
platoon,  sergeant;  I  want  to  have  a  little 
chat  with  them,  for  I  'm  going  over  with 
you.' 

6  All  right,  come  this  way,  sir.' 

I  found  that  about  half  a  dozen  of  them 
had  only  joined  the  battalion  that  night,  and 
it  was  their  first  experience  of  warfare. 
Rather  a  rough  introduction  I  thought. 


A  BAYONET  CHAKGE          209 

'  Now,  boys,'  I  said,  '  as  soon  as  "our 
barrage  drops  down  I  '11  hop  over  the  top, 
and  I  want  every  man- jack  of  you  to  follow. 
You  '11  feel  a  bit  shaky  when  our  barrage 
drops  down,  for  there  '11  be  such  an  ungodly 
noise ;  but  just  watch  it — keep  close  behind 
the  bursting  shells,  but  don't  get  underneath 
them.  It  will  be  nothing  but  a  walk  over 
if  you  do  this. ' 

The  boys  were  now  only  impatient  for  the 
fun  to  commence.  At  ten  minutes  to  five 
the  faint  grey  light  of  dawn  appeared,  the 
last  that  many  a  brave  lad  was  to  see.  But 
I  am  sure  that  no  such  thoughts  saddened 
or  daunted  the  brave  hearts  of  the  boys 
around  me.  We  laughed  and  joked  and 
lighted  our  cigarettes.  I  was  alternately 
climbing  up  and  down  from  the  firing  step. 
At  three  minutes  to  five  the  dim  outline  of 
the  Crows'  Nest  became  visible.  Our 
heavies  were  still  crashing  into  it,  and  a 
pall  of  smoke  hung  about  it.  I  pulled  out  my 
revolver,  passed  the  word  along  to  get 
ready,  and  then  sat  on  the  parapet  waiting. 
Then  it  came,  that  fiendishly  destructive, 
but  friendly  barrage  of  ours!  The  shells 
screamed  and  shrieked  overhead  and  burst 
into  flame  in  front  of  us.  I  jumped  up. 


210  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

*  Come  on,  boys,'  I  yelled,  and  started 
forward. 

The  light  was  still  very  faint.  Behind 
me  I  saw  the  dim  shadowy  figures  of  men 
following  me;  in  front  of  me,  that  wall  of 
flame  and  iron.  The  German  barrage  now 
came  down,  mingling  with  ours.  The  noise 
was  deafening,  but  above  it  all  rang  out 
the  voices  of  our  boys,  yelling  and  cheering 
as  they  came  straggling  forward.  The  more 
enthusiastic  and  adventurous  rushed  past 
me. 

'  Come  back,'  I  yell  after  them;  '  do  you 
want  to  get  into  the  barrage  ? '  They 
hesitate,  then  come  back;  but  one  party, 
more  adventurous  than  the  rest,  turned  back 
too  late.  One  of  our  own  shells  bursts  in 
amongst  them,  and  when  the  smoke  clears 
away  only  two  of  them  come  limping  back. 
We  wait  a  minute  for  the  barrage  to  lift; 
the  boys  continue  to  shout  and  cheer,  and 
we  move  forward  upon  a  wave  of  excite- 
ment. During  a  pause  one  boy  rushed  up  to 
me: 

6  Have  a  cigarette,  sir?  ' 

*  Yes,  thanks,  I  will.  Have  you  a 
match?  ' 

'  Yes,  sir,  light  up.' 


A  BAYONET  CHARGE          211 

The  barrage  lifts  and  we  surge  forward 
again  in  the  semi-darkness.  The  white  out- 
line of  a  trench  shows  up  a  few  yards  in 
front;  the  barrage  has  just  lifted  from  it. 
'  Come  on,  boys,'  I  shout,  and  there  is  a 
wild  rush  forward.  We  clamber  over  the 
wire  and  meet  the  Huns  climbing  out  of  the 
trench.  '  Kamerad !  Kamerad  !  '  they 
shout  hysterically.  Laughingly  some  of 
the  boys  give  them  a  poke  with  their 
bayonets,  and  the  Huns  scurry  wildly  past 
us.  We  jump  the  trench  and  follow  the 
barrage.  Everybody  is  shouting  encourage- 
ment to  the  other  fellow.  The  light  is 
getting  better.  Through  the  smoke  of  the 
barrage  I  see  the  outline  of  a  second  trench. 
As  we  move  up  closer  I  see  several  round 
significant  objects  lying  on  the  parapet — 
machine  guns!  If  they  get  only  one  of 
them  into  action  the  result  will  be  catas- 
trophe !  Just  then  one  of  our  officers  came 
up.  Although  yelling  at  the  top  of  his 
voice  I  barely  heard  him  say : 
6  What  about  a  bayonet  charge  ?  ' 
'  Yes,'  I  shouted  back,  '  the  very  thing.' 
'  All  right,  I  have  a  whistle  here ;  when  I 
blow  it  we  '11  all  rush  forward.' 
'  Righto,  we  '11  be  with  you/ 


212  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

6  A  bayonet  charge,'  I  yelled,  '  everybody 
for  a  bayonet  charge. ' 

'  A  bayonet  charge !  a  bayonet  charge !  ' 
was  the  cry  everywhere  around  me.  Some 
of  the  boys  laughingly  felt  the  points  of  their 
bayonets. 

6  All  ready,'  I  shouted. 

6  Yes,  sir, '  came  back  the  reply. 

I  signalled  to  the  other  officer — he  blew 
his  whistle  and  we  made  a  wild  rush  for- 
ward, uttering  the  most  weird,  blood-curd- 
ling cries.  A  solitary  machine  gun  spat  out 
for  a  few  seconds,  and  two  or  three  bombs 
were  thrown  from  the  trench,  and  then  we 
were  on  top  of  them!  The  Huns  made  a 
brief  effort  at  resistance,  but  it  was  short- 
lived. Then  they  shrieked  for  mercy — but  it 
was  too  late!  We  collected  eight  machine 
guns,  enough,  if  bravely  handled,  to  wipe  out 
a  whole  battalion.  Then  we  continued  our 
triumphant  progress.  It  was  almost  day- 
light now.  We  followed  up  our  barrage 
until  it  ceased  to  move  forward  and  became 
protective. 

6  Come  on;  string  out  everybody  and 
dig  in,'  I  yelled. 

Pat  came  along. 

6  Hullo,  Pat,  how  's  it  going?  ' 


A  BAYONET  CHARGE         213 

'  Fine,  but  we  Ve  got  to  dig  in  now.' 
6  Yes,  we  11  soon  have  everybody  working 
hard.' 

A  few  minutes  later  I  looked  over  to  the 
left,  where  a  Boche  machine-gun  nest  was 
still  in  action.  As  the  boys  closed  in  on 
them  they  began  to  waver.  Then  I  saw  a 
Boche  officer  do  a  characteristically  dirty 
German  trick.  Only  one  gun  was  firing 
spasmodically;  our  men  were  working 
their  way  forward,  running  from  shell-hole 
to  shell-hole.  I  watched  it  all  from  a  flank 
from  where  I  could  plainly  see  everything 
that  happened.  I  saw  men  manning  three 
other  guns,  though  they  were  not  firing  a 
shot.  The  reason  for  this  soon  became 
evident.  The  Boche  officer  seized  hold  of  a 
man  and  pushed  him  out  in  front  of  the 
trench.  The  man  seemed  most  unwilling 
to  go.  The  officer  then  threatened  him 
with  a  revolver.  Then  the  meaning  of  all 
this  by-play  flashed  upon  me  as  the  Hun 
came  stumbling  forward  with  his  hands  over 
his  head.  At  the  same  time  two  Huns  got 
out  of  the  trench  and  ran  back.  It  was  a 
bluff — a  trap!  I  held  my  breath  as  I 
watched  events  develop.  Would  our  men 
get  up  and  go  forward  believing  that  the 


214          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

Huns  had  given  up  the  fight?  If  so,  then 
those  three  guns  would  all  open  up  on  them. 
I  watched  and  waited  in  breathless  sus- 
pense, and  then  I  gave  a  shout  of  joy  as 
several  rifles  spurted  fire,  and  the  surrender- 
ing Hun  toppled  over  dead.  The  ruse  had 
failed! 

Our  shell-fire  was  now  diminishing,  and 
we  were  all  busy  digging  in.  The  position 
was  a  most  unenviable  one.  We  were  being 
enfiladed  with  machine  guns  from  a  flank. 
Moving  from  shell-hole  to  shell-hole  was 
dangerous  business.  I  saw  Pat  go  down 
with  a  bullet  wound  in  the  leg,  and  an 
ofl&cer  with  me  received  a  bullet  through  the 
head.  Then  a  Hun  plane  came  over  and 
provided  us  with  a  thrill.  He  saucily 
circled  overhead,  swooping  down  until  his 
machine  almost  touched  the  ground.  He 
outstayed  his  welcome,  though.  One  of  our 
Lewis  gunners  fired  a  short  burst  and  Mr. 
Hun  came  crashing  to  earth  to  the  accom- 
paniment of  wild  cheers  from  the  troops. 

Then  the  Fokker  '  circus'  devoted  their 
attention  to  us  in  a  rather  mean  fashion. 
About  twenty-five  of  them  came  circling 
overhead  at  a  height  of  about  five  hundred 
feet  and  calmly  unloaded  their  baggage  of 


A  BAYONET  CHARGE          215 

bombs  upon  us.  For  the  space  of  a  few 
minutes  we  were  all  extremely  uncomfort- 
able. The  last  and  most  exciting  incident  in 
a  day  of  incidents  was  when  a  runner,  fol- 
lowing behind  me  as  I  ran  from  shell-hole  to 
shell-hole,  had  the  few  bristles  on  his  upper 
lip  (which  he  designated  by  the  rather  ambi- 
tiously descriptive  term  of  a  moustache) 
very  cleanly  shot  off  by  a  machine-gun  bul- 
let !  It  was  literally  the  closest  shave  that  I 
had  ever  seen— either  inside  or  outside  of  a 
barber's  shop !  Later  in  the  day  I  was  back 
in  headquarters,  eating  a  meal  that  had  been 
postponed  for  twenty-four  hours,  reciting, 
with  very  great  satisfaction,  the  details  of 
our  hurricane  and  successful  bayonet 
charge. 


XII 
CAPTURING  A  VILLAGE 


night  of  the  day  of  the  bayonet 
charge,  instructions  came  through 
for  the  big  attack  of  the  following  day.  It 
was  an  attack  ambitiously  planned. 

First  of  all,  the  famous  Wotan  Switch  was 
to  be  broken  through,  and  then  we  were  to 
sweep  forward,  over-running  several  vil- 
lages and  trench  systems,  until  we  finally 
reached  the  Canal  Du  Nord.  Battalion  was 
to  '  leap-frog  '  battalion  ;  brigade  to  '  leap- 
frog '  brigade,  and  finally  division  was  to 
'  leap-frog  '  division  !  At  the  end  of  the  day 
the  first  attacking  wave  would  be  left  miles 
behind!  Behind  the  attacking  infantry 
were  legions  of  cavalry  and  swarms  of 
motor  machine  guns,  which  were  to  add 
the  final  touch  to  the  discomfiture  of  the 
Hun.  Tanks  were  to  attack  with  the  in- 
fantry; low-flying  aeroplanes  would  also 

216 


CAPTURING  A  VILLAGE       217 

be  there  to  assist.  Before  our  gaze  would 
be  spread  the  whole  panorama  of  battle: 
the  might  of  the  British  Army  would  irre- 
sistibly sweep  forward,  driving  the  Hun 
before  it,  recapturing  the  soil  of  glorious, 
suffering  Prance! 

A  spirit  of  confidence  prevailed  every- 
where. Victory  was  as  certain  twelve  hours 
before  the  attack  as  it  was  twelve  hours  after 
it. 

Our  battalion  was  to  leap-frog  another 
battalion  in  our  brigade  who  were  to  start 
the  ball  rolling.  The  '  kick-off  '  was  to  be 
shortly  after  five  o'clock,  and  we  came  into 
the  game  at  eight  o'clock.  The  C.O.  ex- 
plained the  details  of  the  attack  to  me.  We 
were  to  attack  through  a  fairly  large  village, 
and  then  sweep  on  through  a  wood  just  be- 
yond it.  The  depth  of  the  advance  was  to 
be  a  little  over  two  miles. 

'  You  will  take  your  scouts  up  with  you, 
M'Kean,'  the  C.O.  concluded.  '  After  we 
get  through  the  village  and  into  the  open 
I  want  your  scouts  to  push  ahead  of  the 
battalion,  the  same  way  as  practised  for 
open  fighting.  Here  are  a  number  of 
message  maps  on  which  they  will  send  back 
reports.  Distribute  these  amongst  them 


218  SCOUTING  THEILLS 

before  the  attack  starts.  Impress  upon 
them  all  the  necessity  of  frequent  reports. 
We  want  to  know  exactly  what  the  situation 
is  in  front.' 

I  saw  the  scouts,  distributed  the  maps, 
and  explained  the  details  of  the  attack  to 
them. 

At  six  o'clock  the  next  morning,  almost 
an  hour  after  the  attack  had  started,  I  left 
headquarters  at  the  head  of  ten  scouts — 
moving  forward  in  single  file.  As  far  as  the 
eye  could  see  were  (what  we  called)  little 
'  blobs  '  of  men  moving  forward.  Spread 
out  in  this  fashion,  they  lessened  the  risks 
of  sustaining  heavy  casualties,  a  single 
shell  rarely  claiming  more  than  half  a 
dozen  victims.  Already,  behind  us  we 
could  see  some  of  the  artillery  limbering 
up  ready  to  move  forward.  The  smoke  of 
bursting  shells  ahead  indicated  our  barrage. 
Coming  back  out  of  the  battle  were  many 
cheery  walking  wounded,  and  swarms  of 
prisoners,  many  of  them  without  escort, 
came  trooping  past.  It  was  a  scene  of 
animated  movement,  and  it  showed  that  all 
our  confidence  had  been  justified — for  the 
famous  Wotan  Switch  was  battered,  broken, 
and  lost  for  ever  to  the  Germans.  As  we  ap- 


CAPTUEING  A  VILLAGE       219 

proached  it,  we  were  amazed  at  the  masses 
of  wire  protecting  it:  three  distinct 
belts  averaging  forty  feet  in  depth,  be- 
fore the  first  trench  was  reached!  In 
other  words,  there  were  one  hundred  and 
twenty  feet  of  dense  wire  entanglements 
between  us  and  their  front  line  trench,  and 
our  men  went  through  it !  The  trench  was 
a  first  class  one,  deep  and  well  constructed, 
with  immense  dug-outs,  and  an  abundance 
of  concrete  machine-gun  emplacements.  It 
was  the  dug-outs  that  had  been  Fritz's 
undoing — he  had  stayed  down  in  them  until 
invited  by  our  men  to  come  out  and  sur- 
render. If  he  had  ever  shown  the  same 
bravery  in  fighting  as  he  showed  alacrity 
in  surrendering,  the  war  would  not  yet  have 
been  won.  Here  and  there  we  saw  a  dead 
German — but  very  few.  The  bulk  of  them 
preferred  shameless  surrender  to  heroic 
dying. 

In  between  his  front  and  support  line  was 
another  continuous  mass  of  wire,  flattened 
out  in  places  by  our  tanks — some  of  which 
we  saw  moving  leisurely  around  ahead  of 
us.  As  we  watched  their  unconcerned 
rambling  movements  it  gave  a  touch  of 
unreality  to  the  whole  scene.  It  seemed 


220          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

impossible  to  realise  that  a  tremendous 
decisive  battle  was  being  fought.  The 
realism  was  soon  disturbingly  evident  to 
us  all  again  though,  as  his  heavy  '  crumps  ' 
began  to  bounce  around  us. 

We  at  last  arrived  at  the  Hun  support 
line,  where  our  battalion  was  assembling 
to  carry  on  the  attack.  In  front  of  this 
line  was  a  protective  barrage  of  *  heavies,' 
most  of  them  falling  in  the  village  we  had 
to  attack,  which  lay  in  a  hollow  about  three 
hundred  yards  in  front  of  us.  Leading 
down  to  the  village  was  a  sunken  road.  I 
got  into  the  trench  at  a  point  where  this 
road  cut  through  it.  A  few  men  belonging 
to  the  battalion  which  had  led  off  the  attack 
were  sitting  around  having  a  smoke.  I 
inquired  if  any  of  them  had  seen  men  of 
my  own  battalion  around. 

*  Yes,  sir,  they  're  gone.' 

6  Gone !  gone  where  ?  ' 

6  They  are  carrying  on  with  the  attack, 
sir;  they  left  here  more  than  five  minutes 
ago.' 

I  looked  at  my  watch — ten  minutes  to 
eight  and  the  attack  was  not  to  take  place 
until  eight. 

'  Come  on,  boys,'  I  said  to  the  scouts, 


CAPTURING  A  VILLAGE     221 

*  the  battalion  is  out  in  front  somewhere. 
I  'm  pretty  sure  they  are  not  in  that  vil- 
lage; if  they  are,  they  are  having  a  warm 
time.' 

We  climbed  out  of  the  trench  and  went 
a  few  yards  down  the  road  when,  looking 
to  my  left,  I  saw  one  of  our  company  com- 
manders, with  a  few  men,  sitting  in  a  shell- 
hole.  I  at  once  hurried  over  to  him. 

'  Hullo,  John,'  I  said,  '  where 's  your 
company?  ' 

'  Scattered  around  somewhere,  Mac.  We 
started  too  soon  and  got  into  our  own 
barrage.  I  thought  we  were  too  soon,  but 
I  saw  them  moving  forward  on  the  right  so 
I  went  ahead,  thinking  that  my  watch 
might  be  wrong.' 

'  No,  it  's  only  ten  minutes  to  eight  now, 
and  that  barrage  of  heavies  doesn't  lift  from 
the  village  until  eight  o'clock.' 

*  Yes,  that 's  what  the  operation  order 
says.' 

6  How  many  of  your  company  have  you 
around  here  ?  ' 

'  Only  headquarters — about  twenty  all 
told,  including  the  headquarters'  Lewis  gun 
section. ' 

6  Well,  I  have  ten  scouts  with  me;  I  don't 


222          SCOUTING  THEILLS 

see  why  we  can't  have  a  shot  at  taking 
that  village  as  soon  as  the  barrage  lifts.  If 
we  can  only  get  in  there  right  afterwards  I 
don't  think  there  '11  be  much  opposition.' 

'  Righto,  Mac,  I  'm  game.  As  soon  as  it 
is  eight  o'clock  we  '11  push  off.' 

In  the  meantime  our  position  was  any- 
thing but  an  enviable  one.  The  Boche, 
angry  at  losing  his  valuable  and  supposedly 
impregnable  system  of  defences  known  as 
the  Wotan  Switch,  was  viciously  pounding 
them  with  5.9 's.  More  than  one  came 
perilously  close  to  us,  in  fact  several  just 
missed  us  by  a  matter  of  a  few  yards. 

6  I  don't  mind  how  soon  eight  o'clock 
comes  around,  John,  do  you  ?  ' 

'  Not  at  all,  Mac,  there  are  surely  more 
peaceful  places  in  France  than  this  particu- 
lar spot  here.' 

'  Well,  it  only  wants  three  minutes ; 
what  do  you  say  if  we  gather  the  men 
together  from  the  shell-holes  and  so  be 
ready  to  move  off  prompt  ?  ' 

'  All  right,  we  had  better  do  that.' 

A  couple  of  minutes  later  between  fifteen 
and  twenty  of  us  were  standing  together, 
when  one  unlucky  5.9  landed  square  in 
amongst  us.  I  felt  something  hot,  for  all 


CAPTUKING  A  VILLAGE      223 

the  world  like  a  hot  cinder,  go  into  my  leg, 
and  knew  I  was  hit.  The  scout  corporal 
who  was  with  me  fell  on  his  face,  killed 
instantly.  When  the  smoke  cleared  away 
only  two  or  three  were  left  standing.  John 
lay  stretched  out,  hit  in  two  places,  while 
most  of  my  scouts  were  casualties.  I 
limped  over  to  John. 

6  Badly  hit  ?  '  I  inquired. 

'  Only  two  chunks  in  me,  I  can't  walk 
though.  Not  a  very  nice  beginning  for  our 
attack.' 

'  No,  but  it 's  eight  o'clock  and  we  must 
push  off.  I  'm  hit  in  the  leg  but  I  can  carry 
on  for  a  little  while. ' 

'  Well,  good  luck,  Mac.' 

6  Thanks,'  I  replied,  '  don't  worry  about 
us ;  we  '11  get  on  all  right. ' 

I  then  detailed  some  men  to  bandage  up 
the  wounded  and  to  see  that  they  were  all 
got  out ;  collected  the  remnant,  amounting  to 
eight  men  and  a  Lewis  gun,  and  went  down 
the  road  to  attack  the  village.  As  far 
as  I  could  see  we  were  the  only  ones 
moving,  though  I  knew  it  would  only  be 
a  question  of  minutes  before  reinforcements 
followed  up.  We  had  not  gone  far  before 
we  found  some  work  to  do.  About  one 


224          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

hundred  yards  down  the  sunken  road  lead- 
ing into  the  village  we  came  to  our  first  dug- 
out. I  shouted  down  and  there  was  in- 
stantly a  chorus  of  '  Kamerads  '  from  the 
depths  of  it.  I  trifled  with  my  German : 

'  Kommen  Sie  up  hier  or  we  '11  shoot  you 
verdamtt  quick.' 

6  Ya !  Ya !  '  came  back  a  chorus  of  agree- 
ment, which  was  very  gratifying  to  the  pride 
I  felt  in  the  fluency  of  my  German. 

In  a  few  seconds  a  German  appeared 
scrambling  up  the  dug-out  steps,  trying 
his  best  to  get  a  footing  on  the  broken  wood- 
work and  at  the  same  time  to  keep  his  hands 
above  his  head  in  the  approved  style  of  the 
4  Kamerading  '  German.  There  was  the 
bang  of  a  rifle  at  my  elbow  and  the  Hun 
toppled  backwards,  and  a  chorus  of  shouts, 
shrieks,  and  moans  came  from  the  assembled 
Huns  below.  I  turned  and  saw  a  scout 
standing  with  a  smoking  rifle  in  his  hand  and 
a  broad,  expansive  smile  on  his  face. 

1  Now  you  Ve  done  it,'  I  exclaimed 
angrily,  '  we'll  never  get  those  Huns  out 
of  that  dug-out  in  a  blue  moon  now.  You 
can  stay  here  and  persuade  them  to  come 
out,  but  you  '11  not  have  to  use  such  harsh 
methods.' 


CAPTUBING  A  VILLAGE       225 

So,  leaving  another  man  with  him,  I  went 
along  to  the  next  dug-out.  After  some  little 
persuasion  seven  trembling  Huns,  with  the 
fear  of  death  in  their  eyes,  trooped  up  and 
accepted  with  alacrity  our  invitation  to 
hustle  back  along  the  road  in  the  direction 
of  our  lines. 

There  were  three  more  dug-outs  to  be 
i  mopped  up  '  before  we  reached  the  village, 
so,  being  anxious  to  get  into  the  village  as 
quickly  as  possible,  I  left  four  men  there 
to  do  the  '  mopping  up,'  and  pushed  on, 
with  a  corporal  and  a  scout,  into  the 
village. 

Believing  it  to  be  unwise  to  follow  the  road 
directly  into  it,  we  branched  off  to  the  left, 
skirted  round  the  back  of  a  house, 
passed  through  an  orchard,  climbed  over 
the  debris  of  a  broken-down  wall,  and  found 
ourselves  in  the  village  square — with  the 
village  church  opposite. 

What  happened  now  seems  incredible. 
Looking  out  of  the  doors  and  windows  of 
the  houses  facing  on  to  the  square  were 
scores  of  scared-looking  Huns!  I  gave  a 
gasp  of  astonishment.  This  was  certainly 
walking  into  trouble,  I  thought.  For  a 
moment  I  was  dumbfounded,  momentarily 
Q 


226          SCOUTING  THRILLS 

expecting  the  Huns  to  open  up  on  us — for 
we  were  frightfully  outnumbered.  For  a 
few  seconds  we  stood  there  and  stared  at 
one  another.  Then  I  started  waving  my 
arm  wildly  as  though  encouraging  scores  of 
men  on  my  right  and  left  to  come  for- 
ward. 

6  Come  on,  the  old  Fourteenth,'  I  shouted, 
'  walk  into  them !  Come  on,  you  're  the 
boys  that  can  do  it !  '  About  fifty  yards  in 
front  of  me  were  two  husky  Huns  watching 
me  through  the  paneless  windows  of  a 
fairly  large  house.  One  of  them  was  a  tall 
fellow,  well  over  six  feet,  wearing  a  heavy 
black  moustache  and  carrying  his  full  load 
of  equipment.  Still  shouting  and  waving 
my  revolver  over  my  head,  I  made  a  wild 
rush  at  him.  He  promptly  turned,  dropped 
his  rifle,  and  ran  for  his  life !  This  was  the 
deciding  act,  the  cue  to  the  rest  of  the  Huns. 
Their  rifles  clattered  noisily,  as  they  threw 
them  as  far  from  them  as  they  could,  then 
scrambled  out  of  the  houses  and  '  footed  ' 
it  for  all  they  were  worth!  I  was  soon  in 
the  midst  of  a  mob  of  fleeing  Huns,  running 
as  hard  as  they  were,  and  keeping  my  eye  on 
my  particular  quarry.  Hampered  as  he 
was  with  his  huge  pack  I  soon  caught  up 


CAPTUBING  A  VILLAGE      227 

to  him,  pulled  him  over,  and  stood  flourish- 
ing my  revolver  over  him. 

'Kamerad!  Kamerad!'  he  yelled  pite- 
ously.  I  gave  him  a  couple  of  healthy 
kicks,  assisted  him  to  his  feet,  gave  him  a 
parting  kick  and  sent  him  scurrying  back 
in  the  direction  of  our  lines. 

Once  again  with  the  Huns  it  was  a  case  of 
6  follow  my  leader.'  Seeing  the  tall  one 
of  the  black  moustache  running  wildly  back 
towards  our  lines,  the  majority  of  them 
promptly  turned  round  and  followed  him, 
while  we  stood  by  and  calmly  looked  on. 
At  least  fifty  Huns  went  past  us.  Looking 
around  I  could  see,  at  a  distance,  scores  more 
of  them  making  frantic  efforts  to  get 
away. 

'  Come  on,  boys,'  I  called  to  the  two  with 
me,  '  let  us  cut  them  off.'  We  ran  down  a 
street  leading  out  from  the  square  for  a 
distance  of  about  seventy-five  yards  until 
we  came  to  a  main  road  running  through  the 
village.  Turning  to  the  left  along  this,  we 
had  only  gone  a  few  yards  when  we  met  a 
crowd  of  frightened  looking  Huns  making 
a  wild  dash  for  freedom.  We  simply 
*  shooed '  them  back,  and  they  ran  as 
madly  in  the  other  direction.  We  kept 


228          SCOUTING  THEILLS 

running  up  and  down  this  road,  meeting 
Huns  endeavoring  to  escape  down  the  side 
streets  leading  on  to  the  road.  In  every 
direction  we  could  see  fleeing  Huns,  and  it 
was  a  case  of  simply  directing  the  traffic. 
Not  one  of  them  offered  any  opposition. 
Once  we  saw  several  dash  round  opposite 
sides  of  a  house,  and  meet  violently  and  un- 
expectedly. They  scrambled  to  their 
feet  and  dashed  off  again  in  different 
directions.  Panic  wasn't  the  word  for  it! 
We  couldn't  believe  it  was  a  war — it  was 
more  like  a  pantomime!  I  couldn't  help 
it,  I  just  leaned  up  against  a  house  and 
laughed — it  was  all  so  comical. 

We  had  now  a  mob  of  running  Huns  be- 
hind us — at  least  two  hundred,  I  calculated 
— and  a  mob  fleeing  in  front  of  us.  With 
many  of  them  it  was  a  toss  up  which  way 
they  ran,  and  with  many  others  they  seemed 
to  have  no  idea  of  which  way  they  were 
running;  merely  to  be  running  seemed  to 
satisfy  them. 

I  remarked  to  the  scout  with  me : 

'Look  here,  none  of  our  battalion  have 

showed  up  yet,  and  we  have  a  mob  of  Huns 

behind  us.    If  they  get  wise  to  things,  they 

may  turn  back  and  take  us  along  with  them ! 


CAPTUBING  A  VILLAGE      229 

I  think  we  had  better  wait  here  until  some 
one  turns  up.' 

I  had  scarcely  finished  speaking  when  I 
saw  the  scout  who  had  attempted  to  dis- 
courage the  Huns  from  surrendering 
approaching. 

6  Hullo,'  I  called  out, '  are  any  of  the  bat- 
talion coming  up  ?  ' 

'  Yes,  sir, '  he  answered. 

'  Well,  go  back  and  hustle  them  along.' 

Soon  afterwards  we  saw  about  a  score  of 
our  men  approaching,  so  we  hurried  on 
down  the  road  through  the  village.  But  I 
must  describe  an  incident  that  happened 
while  we  were  waiting  on  that  road. 

A  German  officer  came  from  a  side  street 
about  seventy-five  yards  to  the  left  of 
where  we  were  standing.  He  glanced  back 
at  us  and  then  continued  his  dignified  walk. 

4  Take  a  crack  at  him  with  your  rifle,'  I 
said  to  the  corporal.  He  did.  The  bullet 
missed,  but  the  Hun  officer  gave  a  quick 
glance  backward  and  perceptibly  increased 
his  pace,  while  endeavouring  to  maintain 
his  dignity. 

*  Take  another  one,'  I  said. 

This  time  it  caught  him  in  the  arm  and 
bowled  him  over.  He  scrambled  to  his  feet, 


230  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

gave  one  wild  glance  backwards,  abandoned 
his  dignity,  and  disappeared  down  the  road 
as  fast  as  his  legs  could  carry  him ! 

We  followed  on  down  this  road  until  we 
came  to  the  outskirts  of  the  village.  About 
five  hundred  yards  away  we  could  see  the 
wood  we  had  to  go  through.  Eunning 
wildly  towards  its  protection  were  at  least 
three  hundred  Huns. 

'  Go  back  and  bring  a  Lewis  gun  along, '  I 
said. 

Soon  afterwards  it  arrived  and  kicked  up 
the  dust  at  the  heels  of  the  retreating  Huns. 
There  was  many  a  wild  glance  backwards, 
and  no  one  attempted  to  stay  behind  with 
those  who  were  hit. 

About  one  hundred  yards  farther  along 
there  was  a  bend  in  the  road.  I  had  seen 
scores  of  Huns  disappear  round  this  bend, 
and  had  wondered  where  they  had  all  gone 
to.  Leaving  the  Lewis  gunners  to  do  their 
execution,  I  ran  down  towards  the  bend  in 
the  road,  followed  by  a  scout.  It  ran  into  a 
cutting  with  sides  about  twelve  feet  high. 
Standing  at  the  entrance  to  a  dug-out  was 
a  little  German  captain,  holding  a  map  in 
his  hand.  I  ran  forward,  rather  breathless, 
seized  his  map  and  stood  looking  at  him. 


CAPTURING  A  VILLAGE     231 

He  smiled  genially  and  pointed  down  the 
dug-out  entrance.  I  looked  down.  It  was 
too  dark  down  there  to  see  anything,  but 
I  heard  the  murmur  of  many  excited  voices. 
I  motioned  to  the  captain  to  bring  them  up. 
He  assented  with  a  smile,  and  very  soon 
afterwards  the  Huns  started  trooping  out. 
As  each  one  came  out  I  pointed  up  the  road 
and  gave  them  a  good  healthy  kick,  which 
none  of  them  waited  to  have  repeated.  I 
had  expected  ten  or  twelve  Huns  to  come 
up,  but  the  number  almost  reached  forty 
before  the  captain  made  a  sign  that  they 
were  all  gone.  He  pointed  to  another  dug- 
out a  few  yards  further  on. 

6  All  right,'  I  said,  '  shoot  'em  up.' 
He  called  down  the  dug-out,  and  very  soon 
more  Huns  appeared.  They  all  received 
the  same  impartial  treatment.  Some  of 
them  made  a  grimace,  and  many  of  them 
forgot,  for  a  moment,  to  hold  their 
hands  above  their  heads  in  the  approved 
6  Kamerad  '  style. 

Included  amongst  the  prisoners  were 
two  officers  who,  in  the  excitement  and 
exuberance  of  the  moment,  received  the 
same  undignified  treatment.  This  dug-out 
yielded  thirty  more  prisoners.  The  captain 


232  SCOUTING  THRILLS 

then  indicated  a  third  dug-out,  smiling 
broadly  all  the  time. 

'  What,  some  more !  '  I  exclaimed.  '  Why, 
you  have  enough  men  here  to  hold  half  a 
dozen  villages  if  you  only  knew  how  to 
fight.  If  your  gang  is  an  example  of  a  mili- 
tary nation  may  the  Lord  always  preserve 
us  from  being  one !  ' 

But  nothing  could  take  the  smile  off  the 
German  captain's  face.  He  proceeded  to 
persuade  the  occupants  of  the  third  dug-out 
to  come  out,  and  over  forty  of  them  filed  past 
us.  Despite  the  fact  that  I  only  had  one  leg 
in  working  order  I  still  proceeded  to  dole 
out  my  particular  brand  of  an  affectionate 
farewell.  Altogether  we  collected  well  over 
one  hundred  prisoners  from  those  three 
large  dug-outs.  When  the  last  German  had 
gone  we  walked  a  few  yards  down  the  road 
until  clear  of  the  cutting.  On  the  left  of  the 
road,  about  two  hundred  yards  away,  we  saw 
German  artillerymen  getting  ready  to  aban- 
don their  guns.  Giving  a  whoop,  the  two  of 
us  started  running  towards  them.  The  Ger- 
man gunners  fled  precipitately,  and  we  were 
soon  scratching  the  number  14  on  two 
smoking  5.9 's. 

Just  then  I  was  on  the  point  of  collapsing. 


CAPTURING  A  VILLAGE        233 

I  had  had  no  bandage  on  my  wound  yet  and 
had  lost  a  lot  of  blood,  but  even  now  there 
was  to  be  no  rest. 

The  left  flank  had  not  come  up,  and  some 
German  field  guns,  not  more  than  six  hun- 
dred yards  on  our  left,  were  switched  on 
to  us,  firing  at  us  over  open  sights.  We 
were  forced  back  to  take  shelter,  and  re- 
joined the  rest  of  the  battalion,  which  was 
now  swarming  through  the  village.  I  sat 
down,  bandaged  up  my  leg  and  then,  leaning 
on  the  arm  of  the  scout,  started  back  up  the 
road.  When  we  came  to  the  three  dug-outs 
I  was  amazed  and  furious  to  see  the  little 
German  captain  standing  there. 

'  What  the  devil  are  you  doing  here,'  I 
cried  angrily,  '  I  sent  you  out  ages  ago.' 

But  nothing  could  repress  that  ingratiat- 
ing smile  of  his.  He  rushed  over  to  me  and 
got  hold  of  my  arm. 

'  Ah,  monsieur  blesse  ?  '  and  motioned  me 
into  the  dug-out.  I  was  feeling  a  bit  faint, 
so  went  in. 

The  Hun  artillery  was  now  turned  on  to 
the  village,  and  houses  were  toppling  over. 
Just  as  we  were  starting  back  a  tank  came 
ambling  up  the  road;  the  door  opened  and 
the  tank  officer  stepped  out. 


234         SCOUTING  THEILLS 

*  Hullo,  good  morning,'  he  said,  *  is  this  ' 
(naming  a  village)  ? 

'  No,  but  you  see  that  place  about  a  mile 
over  to  the  left?  ' 

'  Yes,'  he  replied. 

'  Well,  that  's  the  spot  you  want.' 

He  climbed  back  into  his  tank  and  started 
off  for  the  village.  The  tank  offered  an 
excellent  target  for  the  anti-tank  guns,  and 
it  was  not  long  before  they  put  it  out  of  ac- 
tion. Skirting  the  village,  I  followed  for 
some  distance  in  the  wake  of  the  tank,  but 
the  Hun  machine  gunners  got  their  eye  on 
me  and,  though  wounded  and  limping  along 
with  the  aid  of  a  stick  and  the  arm  of  a  scout, 
they  did  their  best  to  get  me,  and  we  had  to 
scamper  as  best  we  could  from  shell-hole  to 
shell-hole* 

When  we  got  back  out  of  range  we  saw 
thrilling  sights.  Everything  was  moving 
forward — tanks,  artillery  and  infantry — to 
carry  on  the  attack.  It  was  a  most  inspiring 
spectacle,  an  example  of  that  calm  splendid 
confidence  in  our  ability  to  beat  the 
Hun. 

It  was  my  last  battle.  I  limped  painfully 
out  of  the  war  with  the  feeling  that  a  trium- 
phant ending  was  fast  approaching. 


CAPTURING  A  VILLAGE       235 

A  few  weeks  later,  to  use  a  descriptive 
American  phrase,  the  Hun  '  quit  cold.' 
Despite  all  that  I  have  seen  written  about 
the  bravery  of  the  German  soldiers,  I  saw 
very  little  of  it  that  day,  and  the  most  satis- 
fying memory  of  all  is  that  of  my  last  day  in 
the  war,  when  I  booted  so  many  scores  into 
captivity! 


THE   END 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America. 


The  following  pages  contain  advertisements  of  a 
few  of  the  Macmillan  books  on  kindred  subjects 


Ambulance  464.     Encore  des  Blesses 

ILLUSTRATED  BY  MANY  PHOTOGRAPHS 

Cloth,  izmo,  $1.50 

"The  writer  was  17  and  a  freshman  at  Princeton,  but  these  are  not  merits  in 
themselves.  The  gift  of  his  youth  is  that  he  saw  and  told  everything  frankly  without 
any  of  the  acquired  literary  or  temperamental  pose.  His  view  is  as  direct  and  healthy 
as  the  vision  of  a  child,  and  his  spirits  are  as  sound  as  a  cheerful  schoolboy's.  .  .  . 
It  needs  an  intimately  personal  character,  boyish  and  yet  vivid  and  wide-awake,  like 
this  one,  to  show  us  what  the  war  means  to  the  lads  and  how  little  it  dashes  their 
fresh  spirits."  —  The  New  York  Sun. 

"An  account  of  the  war  as  youth  sees  it,  written  in  a  studied,  unsophisticated 
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vivid.  So  matter  of  fact  is  it  in  its  simple  telling  of  what  soon  appeared  the  natural 
thing  in  life  to  its  writer,  that  the  great  impression  given  by  the  book  is  continually 
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conflict  in  which  the  aeroplane  has  played  an  important  part.  One  does  not  see  the 
horror  of  warfare  in  Mr.  Rosher's  writing,  as  the  air-pilot  is  apparently  further  re- 
moved from  scenes  of  bloodshed  and  carnage  than  other  officers  in  the  service;  it  is 
largely  a  feeling  of  exhilaration,  of  breathless  daring  which  he  experiences,  and  these 
characteristics  are  well  imparted  to  the  reader  in  Mr.  Rosher's  sketches."  —  Phil' 
adelphia  Press. 

"There  is  perhaps  no  book  in  the  entire  round  of  warlike  publications  which  gives 
to  the  civilian  so  strong  a  sense  of  the  utter  recklessness  of  the  assured  certainty  of 
the  aviator's  eventual  fate.  .  .  .  There  has  been  heretofore  published  no  such 
ample,  convincing  portrayal  of  the  life  of  an  air-fighter  as  is  disclosed  in  these  letters. 
.  .  .  Lieutenant  Rosher's  terse,  dramatic  letters  vividly  foreshadow  the  new  period 
and  method  of  warlike  adventure." 

"One  of  the  most  fascinating  documents  which  the  war  has  produced." 

—  Churchman. 


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Publishers  64-66  Fifth  Avenue  Hew  York 


The  Flaming  Crucible 


BY  ANDRE  FRIBOURG 

Translated  by  A.  B.  MAURICE 

$1-50 

Under  the  title  Croire,  this  autobiography  of  a  French  infantryman  was  published 
in  Paris  in  1917.  It  is  a  revelation  of  the  French  spirit.  It  is  rather  a  biography  of 
the  spirit,  than  an  account  of  the  amazing  experiences  M.  Fribourg  encountered, 
from  1911  at  Agadir,  through  the  fighting  on  the  Meuse,  and  part  of  the  campaign  in 
Flanders.  The  descriptions  are  memorable  for  their  beautiful  style,  their  pathos  or 
their  elevation.  There  is  a  definite  climax  toward  the  end  where  M.  Fribourg 
returns  to  a  hospital  in  Paris,  broken  and  dulled,  his  faith  momentarily  befogged. 
Gradually  he  readapts  himself,  regains  and  confirms  his  faith  in  the  human 
spirit  that  was  so  vivid  when  he  lived  with  his  fellow  soldiers. 

"All  this,  with  sanity,  simplicity  and  sincerity  and  in  a  language  of  almost  classical 
restraint,  as  a  rule,  but  engagingly  piquant  and  picturesque  and  fantastic  even  upon 
occasions."  —  Boston  Evening  Transcript. 


A  War  Nurse's  Diary 

BY  M.  E.  CLARK 

Illustrated,  doth,  $1.25 

"Unlike  most  volumes  which  have  dealt  with  this  subject,  the  nurse  gives  some 
delightful  reminiscences  which  are  more  closely  identified  with  impressions  recorded 
in  her  heart  than  with  conventional  entries  in  a  diary.  The  inspired  recollections  of 
the  author  constitute  an  important  contribution  to  war  literature." 

—  Philadelphia  Evening  Public  Ledger. 

"To  say  that  'A  War  Nurse's  Diary'  is  an  unusual  book,  the  only  one  of  its 
kind,  would  be  putting  the  matter  much  too  mildly.  In  fact,  it  seems  nothing  short 
of  a  miracle  that  any  woman  should  be  willing  to  enlist  for  such  service  as  the  author 
of  this  volume,  and,  having  enlisted,  that  she  should  survive  to  write  about  it." 

—  Chicago  Evening  Post. 


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64-66  Fifth  Avenue  Hew  Tork 


Under  Orders :  The  Story  of  Tim  and 
"  The  Club  " 

BY  HAROLD  S.  LATHAM 
Illustrated  by  E.  C.  CASWELL 

Cloth,  i2mo,  $1.50 

"  Under  Orders :  The  Story  of  Tim  and  the  Club  is  a  story  that  boys  and  grown-ups 
of  all  ages  will  enjoy  without  a  doubt ;  a  story  that  belongs  to  the  American  boy  of  the 
present  day.  It  is  a  story  that  is  really  valuable.  Through  the  adventures  and 
experiences  of  Tim,  the  lad  of  today  may  get  many  pointers  on  how  to  be  an  effective 
American."  —  New  York  Sun. 

"The  story  is  thoroughly  entertaining.  Boys  will  find  it  as  fascinating  as  the 
proverbial  Indian  tale  or  detective  yarn.  It  is  also  elevating  —  we  do  not  mean  that 
word  in  its  banal  misuse,  but  rather  as  a  synonym  for  instructive,  inspiring  and 
what  not,  all  in  one;  and  it  is  that  in  a  deft,  tactful,  unobtrusive  way,  teaching  by 
engaging  example  rather  than  by  prosy  precept.  Mr.  Latham  evidently  has  a 
knowledge  of  boy  nature  which  is  at  once  keen,  discriminating  and  sympathetic,  and 
he  has  written  a  book  which  boys  will  love  to  read  and  which  their  elders  will  heartily 
approve  their  reading."  —  The  New  York  Tribune. 


The  Year  at  Lincoln  High 

BY  JOSEPH  GOLLOMB 
With  illustrations  by  E.  C.  CASWELL 

Cloth,  i2mo,  $1.50 

"A  fine  story  of  public  school  life  in  a  big  city.  The  story  abounds  in  hotly 
contested  athletic  meets,  ball  games  and  secret  society  initiations.  It  is  vivid,  ex- 
citing and  gives  a  good  idea  of  the  democratizing  process  going  on  in  our  public 
schools  today."  —  San  Francisco  Chronicle. 

"Mr.  Gollomb  has  told  his  story  exceedingly  well."  —  Evening  Post. 

"This  is  one  of  the  best  stories  of  life  in  a  big  boys'  public  school  we  have  ever 
seen.  The  author  has  the  unusual  knack  of  being  able  to  write  for  boys  and  about 
boys  without  writing  down  to  boys.  There  are  in  the  story  action,  fun,  and  char- 
acter." —  The  Outlook. 


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Publishers  64-68  Fifth  Avenue  Hew  York 


Jim  :    The  Story  of  a  Backwoods  Police  Dog 

BY  MAJOR  CHARLES  G.  D.  ROBERTS 
Author  of  "The  Backwoodsmen,"  "Kings  in  Exile,"  etc. 

Cloth,  i2mo,  $1.50 

Here  we  have  a  new  dog  hero,  "Jim,"  enlisted  in  the  service  of 
the  backwoods  police.  Out  of  his  experiences,  Major  Roberts  has 
made  a  most  entertaining  —  and  frequently  thrilling  —  book.  Few 
writers  know  animal  nature  as  does  Major  Roberts,  still  fewer  are 
able  to  write  as  sympathetically  and  intelligently  of  their  ways.  Jim 
will  undoubtedly  be  welcomed  into  the  company  of  dog  heroes,  for  he 
is  a  real  dog  and  a  thoroughly  likeable  one.  In  addition  to  the  story 
of  Jim,  which  comprises  the  bulk  of  the  book,  there  are  three  other 
animal  stories,  all  in  Mr.  Roberts'  best  vein :  Stripes,  The  Un- 
concerned ;  The  Mule,  and  The  Eagle. 

The  present  work  shows  the  author  at  his  best;  it  is  a  pleasing 
addition  to  his  series  of  outdoor  tales. 

The  Pirate  of  Jasper  Peak 

BY  ADAIR  ALDON 

Author  of  "The  Island  of  Appledore" 

Illustrated,  doth,  I2mo,  $1.50 

"Almost  any  boy  will  enjoy  'The  Pirate  of  Jasper  Peak.'  It  is  a 
regular  boys'  story  of  the  Montana  forest  region  and  contains  many 
of  those  adventures  so  clear  to  the  boyish  heart.  The  sole  object  of 
the  book  is  to  entertain,  and  it  succeeds  in  its  mission.  ...  It  is 
just  an  entertaining  book  written  in  careful,  and  plain  diction.  .  .  . 
The  average  boy  will  pick  this  book  up  and  keep  reading  it  until  he 
finally  reaches  the  end  and  learns  how  the  power  of  the  pirate  was 
broken."  —  The  Springfield  Union. 

"When  we  chance  upon  a  worthy  juvenile  like  'The  Pirate  of 
Jasper  Peak '  we  feel  gleeful.  It  is  within  a  boy's  understanding ;  it 
touches  his  interests ;  the  incidents  are  probable ;  there  is  no  gush, 
and  no  newsboy  gets  to  be  a  millionaire.  Instead  we  have  the  story 
of  a  boy's  experience  in  northern  Minnesota,  a  region  which  is  well 
described.  The  Swedish  immigrants  of  that  region  are  pictured  in  a 
notable  way  and  our  hero  assists  one  of  them  to  prove  his  land  claim 
against  the  persecutions  of  a  half-breed  Indian  neighbor.  It  is  a 
compact  narrative  told  with  humor."  —  Chicago  Evening  Post. 


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Publishers  64-66  Fifth  Avenue  Now  York 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 

AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $t.OO  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


NOV  251941 


LD  21-100m-7,'40 (6936s) 


YB  21040 


456481 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


